HANGZHOU: Pakis­tan’s first outings on the track in the ongoing Asian Games was a disappointing one as sprinter Shajar Abbas failed to qualify for the semi-finals after finishing third in the 200m heats on Sunday. Meanwhile, Farhan Ilyas failed to finish in the 110m hurdles heat.

Shajar, who made it to the semis of the Commo­nwealth Games last year, was carrying expectations of a even a better finish at the continental extravaganza. He, however, missed out on progressing to the next round by 0.20 seconds.

After winning the silver medal in the team events, Pakistan continued to do well in squash as Moham­mad Asim Khan and Nasir Iqbal, and Noor-ul-Ain Ijaz won their respective mat­ches in the men’s and women’s singles competitions.

Asim had to fight back after losing the first set to Singapore’s Aaron Jon Widjaja 4-11. The former won the next three 11-9, 11-4, 11-6 to take the match. Nasir had an easy outing against Thailand’s Natthapat Theerasilp, winning 11-7, 11-6, 11-3.

Noor, meanwhile, beat Mongolia’s Khulan Pure­vjav in straight sets 11-0, 11-4, 11-4.

In the mixed doubles, however, Pakistan were undone by Indian opponents. In the Pool ‘A’ fixture, Pakistan’s pair of Noor Zaman and Mehwish Ali lost to India’s Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu and Dipika Pallikal Karthik 11-4, 11-1.

In the Pool ‘D’ match, Farhan Zaman and Sadia Gul were easily defeated by India’s Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh 11-3, 11-2.

Pakistan’s athletes couldn’t make a mark in the archery events as well. In the recurve men’s individual qualifying round, Israr-ul-Haq finished 51st out of 84 participants with 634 points while Moham­mad Nadeem and Idrees Majeed finished 76th with 596 points and 77th with 594 points respectively.

In the women’s side of the competition, Paki­stan’s Nighat Naheed finishes 81st out of 84 participants with 459 points.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2023