BIRMINGHAM: Haider Ali started off well. Lifting 135kg on his first attempt on the snatch during the men’s 81kg weightlifting final at the Commonwealth Games on Monday, he raised hopes of ending Pakistan’s wait for a medal at the Games by building on that.

It wasn’t to be.

Haider attempted 140kg on his next two tries but was unable to do so. Sitting joint-seventh, he needed to do better in the clean and jerk.

He lifted 161kg in the first attempt but as he went for 169kg in his second, he seemed to be relaxing his left arm.

A successful 170kg lift in the third attempt saw him finish with a total of 305kg but it was only good enough for fifth place.

England’s Christopher Murray set a new Games record en route to winning the gold medal, lifting an overall total of 325kg (snatch 144kg; clean & jerk 181kg).

Australian Kyle Bruce got silver with 323kg (143kg+180kg) while Canadian Nicolas Vachon picked bronze with 320kg (140kg+180kg), narrowly pipping India’s Ajay Singh who finished on 319kg (143kg+176kg).

In the pool, there was a Pakistan 1-2 in the second heat of the women’s 100m freestyle but both Jahanara Nabi and Bismah Khan failed to make it to the semi-finals.

Jahanara, however, broke her national record by 0.16 seconds after clocking a minute 1:01.51 to finish 40th among 55 competitors who started. Bismah finished 47th overall after a time of 1:02.59.

In the women’s 100m backstroke heats, Mishael Ayub clocked 1:22.12 and finished third-bottom among 28 competitors.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2022