QUETTA: Pakistan Army scooped four out five golds on offer in the judo competition at the National Games on Wednesday with Wapda winning nine out of 10 in bodybuilding.

Army and Wapda bagged three golds each as seven events in Karate while both sides also set up finals in both men’s and women’s tennis team events.

But Wapda’s chances of catching up with Army atop the medals table look slim as Army stretched their gold-leading tally to 81 while Wapda are second on 42.

Navy, who are third on 27, collected their eighth gold medal in sailing in the J/80 class open match racing.

Army judokas reigned on the mat at the Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences with Saqib Ali, Mohammad Shoaib and Mohammad Hasnain ensuring they swept the men’s events.

Saqib overpowered Wapda’s Awais Ashiq in the gold medal contest of the -55kg category, Shoaib beat Ahtisham of Punjab in the -60kg final while Hasnain downed Wapda’s Danish Rasheed to bag gold in the -66kg.

The two women’s events were split between Army and Higher Education Commission. Army’s Iram Shahzadi beat Malaika Noor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the -48kg final while Kainat Hayat delivered HEC’s second gold of the Games with victory over Punjab’s Bano Butt in the -44kg.

Bodybuilding isn’t an Olympic sport but is included in the National Games roster due to local interest and Wapda’s musclemen were a cut above the rest with Yaseen Khan winning the Mr Pakistan Olympia title.

Yaseen won gold in the Up to 100kg class with his team-mate Mohammad Khrtar winning the Above 100kg class at the Noori Naseer Khan Complex Hall.

Mohammad Tariq (up to 55kg), Mohsin Ali (up to 60kg), Mohammad Amir (up to 65kg), Banaras Khan (up to 70kg), Kishwar Ali (up to 75kg), Hafiz Adil (up to 80kg) and Fida Hussain Baloch (up to 90kg) were the other gold medallists for Wapda with Army’s lone gold delivered by Mohammad Talha (up to 85kg).

Wapda also won two out of four men’s karate golds at the Sardar Bahadur Khan Women’s University Hall thanks to Mohammad Awais and Waheed Ahmed.

Awais beat Balochistan’s Mohammad Haroon in the final of the below 84kg event while Waheed prevailed over Sameer Ahmed of HEC in the above 84kg final.

Balochistan won their maiden gold at the Games it is hosting when Taj Rehan downed Army’s Mubarak Ali in the below 75kg category while Army’s Saifullah triumphed in the individual kata a day after helping Army to gold in the team kata.

Shahida of Wapda won the women’s individual kata gold but the other two golds went to Army karatekas with Sana Kausar beating Balochistan’s Saira in the below 61kg final and Arzoo winning against Quratulain of Wapda in the below 68kg final.

Army and Wapda will also clash for gold in the tennis team events, which are being played in Islamabad at the Pakistan Tennis Federation Complex.

Led by Pakistan number one Aqeel Khan, Wapda reached the men’s team event final with a 2-0 win over Pakistan Air Force. Aqeel overwhelmed Mohammad Shoaib 6-1, 6-2 before his team-mate Mohammad Abid overcame Yousuf Khalil 6-4, 7-5.

Army booked a spot in the final with a 2-0 win over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; the highlight of which was Abdullah Adnan’s fighback from 0-4 down in the first set to beat Barkatullah 7-5, 6-2 before Huzaifa Abdul Rehman handed a double bagel thrashing to Hamid Israr.

Army and Wapda were offered no resistance by their respective opponents in the semi-finals women’s team event as both won their ties 2-0 without losing a point.

Army’s Amna Ali Qayyum hammered Balochistan’s Latifa Yousofi 6-0, 6-0 and her team-mate Mahin Aftab crushed Zara Afzal by the same score.

Wapda were similarly dominant against Islamabad with Sara Mehboob and Ushna Sohail delivering tennis lessons to Kainat Alo and Zainab Ali Raja respectively.

Wapda and Army will also meet in the gold-deciding match in women’s basketball on Thursday.

Both won on Wednesday with Wapda making it two wins out of two in the round-robin contest after edging HEC 45-41 and Army crushing Balochistan 58-6 to rebound from their loss to HEC on Tuesday.

Victory for Wapda will see them clinch gold while victory for Army will see the medal positions decided on points aggregate.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2023