PESHAWAR: Pakistan Army further cemented their position here at the 33rd National Games by leading the medals tally on Thursday with a whopping 123 gold, 99 silver and 65 bronze medals.

Army were followed by Wapda who have so far won 98 gold, 73 silver and 54 bronze medals and Navy (12 gold, five silver and six bronze).

Pakistan Railways overall are at fourth spot with three gold medals which they clinched in weightlifting. Sonia Ghafoor, Sonia Azmat and Tonkal Sohail gave Railways gold medals in 59kg, 64kg and 76kg categories, respectively.

Surprisingly, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were leading among the provinces with one gold medal, three silver and 15 bronze medals.

In the overall standing in athletics, Army secured 717 points with 16 gold, 18 silver and as many bronze medals to lead, followed by Wapda (703 points, 20 gold, 17 silver and 11 bronze) and HEC (85 points, one gold, one silver and one bronze). PAF recorded 65 points with one gold medal, one silver and two bronze. Khyber Pakhtu­nkhwa earned 43 points with four bronze.

Murad Khan secures first gold medal for KP

Meanwhile, Army’s athlete Maria Maratab claimed another gold medal at the Games when she secured 4278 points to create a new national record, surpassing the previous mark of 3831 points.

Wapda face Army while PAF take on Navy in the semi-finals.In the judo event of the National Games being staged at the Baloch Regimental Centre in Abbottabad, six medals were decided on Thursday.

Maria by winning the above-mentioned title added another gold to her three gold medals and bronze and became the second athlete to bag more than three gold medals at the National Games.

Army’s Nabia Kausar (3431 points) won silver, followed by bronze winner Milhan Imran (3333) of Wapda.

In women’s discus throw, Atiya Asghar won gold by recording a distance of 37.13 metres, followed by Wapda’s Rimsha Khan (33.44m) and third-placed Mehwish Karim (33.1m).

Wapda’s Nazia Butt won gold in women’s hammer throw with a distance of 40.70m, followed by Saira of Army and Asma.

Wapda seized women’s 4x100 relay race title while Army came second and HEC third.

In men’s hammer throw, Arshad Nadeem (81.65m) of Wapda created a new national record, breaking his own record of 81.52. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Yasir Sultan (75.35m) seized silver and Imad (69.60m) of Army bronze.

Army bagged men’s 4x100m relay race. They were followed by Wapda and third-placed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Also on Thursday, Wapda, Pakistan Army, PAF and Navy reached the National Games men’s volleyball semi-finals here at the PSB Gymnasium on Thursday while Army, Police, HEC and Wapda qualified for the women’s last-four stage.

Pakistan Army team took five of those gold medals while Wapda outfit earned one gold, two silver and as many bronze medals.

Meanwhilw, Murad Khan gave Khyber Pakhtunkhwa its first gold medal of the ongoing National Games when he produced highly impressive performance to claim victory in the 55kg category karate event.

Murad received huge applause on his magnificent victory -- which he earned by defeating Dawood Khan 8-0 of Pakistan Army -- from the fans and officials present at the venue. DG Sports Asfandyar Khattak, who was also present on the occasion, announced a Rs200,000 cash award for Murad besides announcing Rs30,000 per month scholarship for the triumphant karateka for one year.

Gilgit-Baltistan’s Hashim Rizvi won silver and Railways’ Haroon of Railways seized bronze in the 55kg category. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa team’s Saifullah won individual and Mohammad Harris bronze medals for his team in the 50kg category.

Talking to reporters, Asfandyar lauded Murad and his coach Ghulam Mohammad for the former’s excellent show at the national gala. “We have already announced Rs200,000 for the gold medallists [of the ongoing Games]. The government has announced one-year scholarship for the players who win medals in the National Games.”

Boxers from Navy, Army, Balochistan, PAF, Punjab, HEC, Wapda, KP and Azad Jammu Kashmir qualified for the semi-finals of various categories.

Pakistan Army and Wapda reached women’s rugby final at the Gunj Football ground in Abbottabad.

In the first semi-final, Army defeated KP while Wapda defeated Railways.

POOL DOMINANCE

Army extended their dominance in the pool in Islamabad, sweeping the men’s races and breaking five national records in the process.

Key performances came from Haseeb Tariq who won four individual gold medals as well as four relay golds.

Haseeb broke the 26-year-old 200m freestyle record, previously held by Kamal Masud, with a time of 1.58.88.

He further helped Army set a record time in the 4x100m mixed medlay relay as well as the 4x100m medlay relay.

The other notable performance was by Mohammad Mustafa who broke a 13-year-old record in the 200m breastroke by clocking 2.31.23. He further won the 100m breastroke event.

ARMY WINS SOFTBALL FINAL

In a thrilling women’s softball final, Army edged past Wapda by just one run.

Army scored four runs in their first innings and then restricted Wapda to no score. In their second innings Army scored two runs but Wapda came back strongly to score four runs in their second innings.

Both teams remained scoreless in their third innings but in the fourth innings, Wapda scored one run while Army scored three runs.

In the conclusive fifth innings, Army managed to score two runs and set a six runs winning target for Wapda. In the end, it was a great fightback by Wapda who scored five runsand only to fall short by just one run.

For Army, Atiya Ishaq scored two runs while Humaira, Aasia, Rashida, Maida, Rabia and Fareeha scored one run each. For Wapda, the main scorers were Noreena, Madeeha and Saiqa who each scored two runs while Ammara and Zainab scored one run each.

KP beat Balochistan to clinch third position.

Elsewhere, Sindh and Culligan set up a gold medal match in women’s throwball.

Sindh beat Gilgit-Baltistan 2-1 in the first semi-final while Culligan beat KP 2-1 in the second.

In the men’s throwball event, KP and Balochistan reached the final after overpowering their opponents.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2019