KARACHI, Feb 27: Pakistan Army ruled the men track and field events capturing four of the five gold that were decided on the opening day of the 40th National Athletics championship, the blue-ribbon event of sports, at the National Sports Training and Coaching Centre (NSTCC) under floodlights on Sunday night.

The soldiers maintained their ascendancy by picking up gold in high jump, discus throw, 5000 metres and long jump while Wapda pocketed the javelin throw gold.

On the women front, last year’s champion, Wapda, and runners-up Pakistan Steel, won two gold each while Railways had the consolation of winning one.

Anwar Khan gave Army the first gold winning the high jump by clearing the bar at a height of 1.98 metres.

His colleague Amjad Farooq who won the gold last year, secured silver while the bronze went to Ahmed Bilal of Wapda.

Army’s second gold came in discus throw through the efforts of last year’s runners-up Basharat Ali who threw the disc to a distance of 51.56 metres.

Naushad Khan of Army retained the 5000 metres gold covering the distance in 14:59.1 seconds. However, he failed to better his timings as he had covered the distance in 14:39.5 seconds last year.

Similarly, Waseem Khan of Army leaped to a distance of 7.27 metres to retain the long jump gold.

Irfan Hussain clinched the javelin throw gold for Wapda when he threw the javelin to 17.49 metres.

In women, Wapda’s two golds game in the long jump and 5000 metres through Mariam Babar and Sajida Ramzan.

Pakistan Steel dictated terms in sprints when Fauzia Aurangzeb and Bushra Perveen crowned the 400 metres hurdles and 800 metres golds.

Abida Changez’s efforts bore fruitful results for Railways when she won the discus throw gold.

The meet heralded a new beginning for taking place in floodlights but the athletes experienced the electricity shut down when the light went off at least twice.

Results: