GLASGOW: Pakistan’s Commonwealth Games campaign came to a dismal end on Sunday as judoka Shah Hussain Shah exited in the round-of-16, leaving the country with just a single bronze medal from the Glasgow edition.

Hussain lost to Canada’s John Messe A Besson in the men’s +100kg category, with the bout going into Golden Score — judo’s overtime — before Besson landed a decisive Ippon at the 7:53 mark.

Hussain, who had been penalised with a red card during the contest, was unable to register any score against his opponent.

The result capped a disappointing 10-day campaign for Pakistan, whose sole podium finish came through boxer Fatima Zehra.

The 22-year-old from Sargodha claimed bronze in the 60kg category, becoming the first Pakistan woman to win a Commonwealth Games boxing medal after reaching the semi-finals.

Pakistan’s biggest medal hope, Olympic and Commonwealth javelin champion Arshad Nadeem, finished a distant ninth in his title defence with a best throw of 77.41 metres — well below the 89.75m winning effort of Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage. India’s Neeraj Chopra took silver.

In the pool, all four Pakistani swimmers — Jehanara Nabi, Ahmad Durrani, Hamza Asif and Hareem Malik — were eliminated in the heats across their respective events.

Sprinter Faiqa Riaz broke the national 100m record but still finished outside qualification, while long jumper Ansar Abbas managed 7.06m to finish 18th of 20 competitors.

In the women’s pole vault, Noreen Hussain failed to register a mark, while national record holder Feryal Farooq finished last in the discus throw with a best effort of 38.66 metres.

Lawn bowls offered no respite with Pakistan’s men’s pair of Maqsood Waseem and Mohammad Ayub Qureshi losing all their matches.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2026