ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination (IPC) on Wednesday distributed cheques among the members of Pakistan Judo and Karate teams for winning medals at the South Asian Games last year.

At the Games in Nepal, the country’s judokas grabbed two golds, three silver and four bronze medals while the karatekas collected six gold, eight silver and five bronze medals.

Judokas Hamid Ali and Shah Hussain Shah won the men’s +100kg and 100kg events respectively while they were also part of the mixed team event in which Pakistan grabbed silver alongside Qaiser Khan, Karamat Butt, Mohammad Hasnain, Nadeem Akram, Humaira Ashiq, Beenish Khan Amina Toyoda and Asma Rani.

Qaiser and Karamat also won silver medals in the men’s 90kg and men’s 81kg events while Hasnain won bronze in men’s 66kg. Humaira, Beenish and Amina won bronze in the women’s 48kg, +78kg and 57kg events respectively. Saadi Abbas won gold in the men’s -75kg karate event while Mohammad Awais and Noman Ahmed won gold in the men’s -84kg and men’s -50kg events respectively. Shahida won the other individual gold in the women’s individual kata while Pakistan clinched gold medals in the men’s and women’s team kumite events.

Saadi and Awais also took part in the men’s team kumite event alongside Baz Mohammad, Murad Khan, Naseer Ahmed, Rehmatullah and Shahbaz Khan.

Baz, Zafar Iqbal, Naseer, Naimatullah won silver in the men’s +84kg, -60kg, -67kg and individual kata events while Murad won bronze in the men’s -55kg event.

Pakistan also won bronze in the men’s team kata event with Murad, Naseer and Niamatullah taking part.

Shahida, Kulsoom, Sana Kausar, Nargis, Sabira Gul contributed to Pakistan’s victory in the women’s team kumite event and Nargis, Shahida and Naz Gul helped Pakistan win silver in the women’s team kata event.

Kulsoom, Sana and Nargis won silver medals in the women’s -68kg, 55kg and +68kg events and Sabira, Naz and Iqra Anwar won bronze in the women’s 50kg, 61kg and 45kg events.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2020