PESHAWAR: Pakistan Army girls set up two new national records on the first day while Samiullah and Najma of Wapda were declared as the fastest athletes among men and women respectively after grabbing gold medals in the 100m race at the 33rd National Games here at the Qayyum Sports Complex on Monday.

The first record was set by the Army’s Sidra Bashir, an international athlete, in the pole vault with a height of 3.15m who beat her own old record of 3.07m while another promising athlete Maria Maratab, also of Army, created another new national record with a distance of 12.25m in triple jump, beating her own record of 12.20m.

It is worth mentioning here that both Sidra and Maria had created these records during the last year’s National Athletics Championship held in Karachi.

Naseem Akhtar of Pakistan Wapda with 2.50m got silver medal and Mehnaz Bibi of Army took bronze medal with her 2.50m jump. Ghazala Sardar of Wapda (2.50m) and Uzma (2.20m) took fourth and fifth positions, respectively in the pole vault.

In the triple jump, Amina Siraj of Wapda with her overall distance (10.46m) and Amitur Rahman of Punjab (10.43m) grab­bed silver and bronze medals.

In the 100m race, Samiullah, hailing from Bannu, recorded a 100m gold medal for Wapda when he clocked 10.64sec, followed Uzair Rehman of Army with 10.67sec and Muhammad Shabaz of Army clocked 10.86sec. In the 100m women’s race, Najma Parveen of Wapda who also won the gold medal in 400m, clinched another gold by clocking 11.87sec, followed by Sahib-e-Asra with 12.12sec and Aneia Gulzar who recorded 12.55sec.

Samiullah, Najma grab gold medals in 100m race

In the mens 5000m, Sohail Amir with a timing of 14.57.31sec won the gold medal followed by Atiqur Rehman of Pakistan Army who clocked 15.04.21sec to bag silver medal. Rameez Javed Mirza of Army with a time of 15.07.70sec finished third.

In the women’s javelin throw, Fatima Hussain won gold medal with her 43.93m, followed by Amna Bibi of Wapda (42.91m) and Nabeela Kausar took bronze medal with 35.80m. Ammara Iqbal took fifth position with her throw 28.67m.

In the women’s 5000m, Rabia Ashiq of Wapda covered the distance in 19.28.22sec to win gold followed by Farhat Bano of Wapda (19.28.46sec) and Rabeela Farooq of Army (19.41.07sec) .

In the women’s 400m, Najma Parveen won the gold medal with a time 53.63sec, followed by Sahib-e-Asra with her time 55.07sec and Anela Gulzar of Army with her time 19.41.07sec.

In the men’s 400m, Mehboob Ali of Pakistan won gold medal with his time 47.01sec, followed by Umar Saddar of Wapda with his time 47.47sec and Nokar Hussain of Army got bronze medal with his time 47.57sec. At the finish of the opening day Wapda with 6 golds and seven silvers led the way, followed Pakistan Army with three gold, two silver and eight bronze medals.

In the basketball event, Army defeated Balochistan by 92 points and Wapda defeated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by 10-15.

THROWBALL CONTESTS

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa beat Gilgit Baltistan 2-0, Police beat Wapda 2-1, Balochistan beat Gilgit Baltistan 2-0 while Sindh beat Wapda 2-0 in the throwball event on Monday.

Bilawal Afridi, MPA KP, was the chief guest on the occasion. The competing men’s teams in the throwball event include Sindh, KP, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Police, Wapda. The women’s teams include Sindh, Punjab, KP, Balochistan, Gilgit Baltistan and Culligan.

MPA Khaliq-ur-Rehman, President KP Throwball Association, Maqbool Arain Secretary Pakistan Throwball Federation and others were also present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2019