GLASGOW: Pakistan endured a challenging day at the Commonwealth Games on Wednesday as the country’s athletes failed to make progress in lawn bowls and swimming events.

Pakistan men’s pairs lawn bowls team of Maqsood Waseem Khan and Mohammed Ayub Qureshi suffered a straight-sets defeat to Australia in their opening Section D match.

The duo of Corey Wedlock and Aaron Teys claimed a 2-0 victory, edging a closely-fought opening set 5-4 before dominating the second 12-1 to leave the Pakistanis searching for their first win of the campaign.

Pakistan had briefly threatened in the opening set after recovering from a 4-0 deficit to level at 4-4, but Australia claimed the decisive end to take the set before cruising through the second.

There was also disappointment in the pool, where Pakistan’s swimmers failed to advance from their respective heats.

Hareem Malik finished fifth in the opening heat of the women’s 200-metre breaststroke in a time of 3:08.84, more than 41 seconds behind heat winner Aimee Canny of South Africa. With only the eight fastest swimmers across the heats progressing to the final, Hareem was eliminated.

In the men’s 200m freestyle, Mohammad Ahmed Durrani placed second in his heat with a time of 1:55.98, finishing behind Namibia’s Luke Arthur Matthew Beukes.

Despite his runner-up finish, Ahmed’s time was well outside the qualifying standard as the event featured several faster heats later in the programme. England’s James Guy led the qualifiers with a Games-record pace of 1:45.69, while the eight finalists all clocked times under 1:47.

Ahmed’s effort, though encouraging within his heat, was not enough to secure a place in the final as Pakistan’s wait for further success at the Games continued.

Pakistan’s best medal prospect remains boxer Fatima Zahra, who has already guaranteed the country a bronze medal by reaching the women’s 60kg semi-finals, ensuring the country’s first medal of the Games.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2026