JAKARTA: Indonesia were Pakistan’s favourite rivals at the Asian Games on Tuesday as both kabaddi and handball teams recorded victories against them while teenaged weightlifter Talha Talib set a national record.

The kabaddi team thrashed the hosts 40-11 in their Group ‘B’ clash to rebound from a defeat to Iran the other day and keep themselves in contention for a top-two finish in the section and a potential medal.

Pakistan, who hammered Malaysia in their opening match, will face Japan and Nepal in their last two group games and victories there will see them advance to the semi-finals of the event.

The handball team finally recorded their first triumph on the fourth attempt, beating the hosts 28-23 in their 9-13 classification group match. Muzamal Hussain starred with eight goals while Hazrat Hussain Hasrat scored six.

Talha’s performance was the individual highlight of the day for Pakistan when he lifted a national record 287kg in the men’s 62kg competition.

Lifting 133kg in snatch and 154kg in clean and jerk, the 18-year-old finished seventh in the event won by Indonesia’s Eko Yuli Irawan, who lifted 311kg.

Over at the shooting range, Adil Ghufran came close to rivaling Talha as Pakistan’s best individual performer of the day.

His total of 1152 points in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions saw him miss out on qualification for the final by just seven points as he ended 14th out of 32 competitors. Adil’s fellow countryman Zeeshan ul Shakir Farid ended in 25th with 1132.

There wasn’t joy in the pool either for Pakistan although Pakistan saw a winner in one of the heats.

Mohammad Yahya Khan won his men’s 50m freestyle heat in 25.50 but ended 42nd among 51 competitors, failing to qualify for the final.

Hamza Malik fared worse in the men’s 200m breaststroke heat, ending second-to-last in 21 competitors after clocking 2:40.72.

In the women’s 50m backstroke, Bisma Khan and Miraal Zahra Haque ended 17th and 20th among 23 competitors.

Miraal also took part in the women’s 100m butterfly where she was only able to finish 23rd among 24 with compatriot Aisha Mishael Ayub faring slightly better and finishing 21st.

Pakistan finished bottom of the pile in archery recurve women’s individual where Nabeela Kousar was 66th after amassing 466 points.

Her compatriot Idrees Majeed only narrowly avoided the same fate but only ended second to last in the men’s event with his 588 point seeing him finish 78th.

There was little delight in rowing as well as both Amjad Baig and Rabia Rafique weren’t able to cause a ripple in the single sculls competitions.

Amjad’s time of 8:34.50 in the men’s repechages saw him finish ninth out of 10th while Rabia Rafique was the worst among nine when she could only clock 11:15.15. Both will now compete in Final B.

Nimra Wasiq suffered a lopsided 2-16 loss to Feng Xiao in women’s taekwondo -57kg round-of-32 competition while Pakistan didn’t have anything to cheer in wushu as well.

Zarina Rafique lost 0-2 to Chinese Taipei’s Weiteng Chen in the women’s sanda -52kg quarter-final while Mubashara also lost by the same score to India’s Naorem Roshibina Davi in the women’s sanda -60kg quarter-final.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2018