KARACHI: Pakistan’s Haroon Khan lost out in the semi-finals of the men’s -58kg category at the World Taekwondo Asia Tokyo Olympics qualifying event in Jordan to world number 15 Ramn­arong SawekWiharee of Thailand on Saturday.Haroon lost 26-32 before being defeated 20-29 in the third-placed match to Al Halawani Zaid of Jordan. He had defeated Saudi Arabia’s Asiri Ali Mohammad 39-19 in the quarter-finals.

Other Pakistani athletes lost their quarter-finals. Taimoor Saeed lost 3-10 to Iran’s Amiri Ali Akbar in the men’s +87kg category and Zoya Sabir was defeated 1-39 by Cambodia’s Tubbs Casandre Nicole in the women’s -57kg category.

“Preparing for an important event like Olympic Qualifying round in the current Covid-19 situation was no less to a challenge for us and due to the hard work by our best coaches and athletes, Haroon finished in the top four in his weight category,” Pakistan Taekwondo Federation president retired Col Wasim Janjua said.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2021