KARACHI, Aug 5: The performance of Pakistani athletes at the 7th South Asian Games which were held at Chennai from Dec 20 to 28, 1995, left much to be desired.

While hosts India set new limits with a tally of 106-60-19, Pakistan was relegated to third position on medals table securing 10-33-36 and their pathetic performance thoroughly exposed the policy makers in Islamabad.

Sri Lanka performed far better, finishing ahead of Pakistan on the table with 16-25-53.

It was inevitable as the athletes lacked the will to win and had not properly trained for the seven-nation regional event.

They had to struggle hard even to finish in double figures as far as gold medals were concerned.

Considering the track record, Pakistan was relying to earn gold medals in boxing, hockey, track and field, rifle shooting, weightlifting and wrestling but athletes featuring in these disciplines let the country down with some ordinary performances.

Pakistan slipped to an unimpressive 1-2-7 medals in men’s track and field compared to 11-8-7 fetched at the Islamabad games which reflected the deteriorating standard.

Aqarab Abbas who was included in the squad at the last moment crowned the only gold in hammer throw with a record breaking feat of 66.94m.

Earlier, Shabana Akhtar won country’s first gold of the games in women’s long jump on the fourth day to end medal draught. She leaped to 6.31m to better her previous mark of 5.95m and retain the title.

The cagers, as expected, settled for silver with arch rivals India winning top honours.

The pugilists who had virtually ruled the games boxing event since its inception, were nowhere near their best and lacked sting in their punches.

Indian boxers reigned supreme, turning the tables on Pakistan with 10-2-0.

The latter pocketed the remaining two golds in addition to six silvers and a bronze.

The gold medal winners for Pakistan were Abdul Rasheed (light middleweight) and Safarish Khan (super heavyweight).

Another surprise was in store for green-shirts hockey team when India thrashed them 5-2 in last league match to claim the title before a packed to capacity crowd.

The team was led by Shahbaz Ahmed. This also marked the first time in SA Games when hockey was included in the disciplines contested.

Pakistan did not feature in football and judo competitions. Besides they returned gold less in kabaddi, shooting, swimming, tennis, table tennis, and men’s and women’s volleyball.

The lifters and grapplers shared remaining six golds amongst themselves. Shujauddin Malik, Zafar Ali and Abdul Hameed won laurels in weightlifting while Raheel Butt, M. Bashir and Abdul Majeed annexed gold in wrestling.

Final medals table

G S B

India 106 60 19

Sri Lanka 16 25 53

Pakistan 10 33 36

Bangladesh 7 17 34

Nepal 4 8 16

Bhutan - - 2

Maldives - - 1

Continuing with the downward trend, Pakistan performed miserably at the eighth South Asian Games held at Kathmandu from Sept 25 to Oct 4.

They finishied an all-time low fourth and could manage 10-36-30 medals, way behind champions India, hosts Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The performance of Pakistan was a clear reflection of how the sports affairs are being run in the country. Unfortunately, none of the heads rolled for the poor show in Games neither was any probe ordered by the Sports Minister.

The Indian domination, as expected, remained intact as they matched their own previous gold medal tally with figures of 102-58-37. However, it was host Nepal which surprised the pundits when they leaped to second spot with the figures of 31-10-24 followed home by Sri Lanka 16-42-62.

In addition to dominating the men and women martial arts competitions — karate and tae kwondo — which yielded them no less than 28 golds, the hosts picked up two golds in boxing and one in women’s swimming.

Pakistan’s national anthem was played when sprinter Maqsood Ahmed captured the 200m gold in track and field clocking 21.15 secs. Rehana Kausar landed second gold by winning long jump clearing the bar at 1.69m.

Boxing which has been Pakistan’s hallmark in the earlier editions continued to show downward trend and the visitors could manage just 3-3-2 medals. The recipients of gold were Haider Ali (flyweight), Shoukat Ali (heavyweight) and Shahid Hussain (super heavyweight).

Farman Ahmed gave Pakistan the only gold in U-80kg karate while Kamal Masud excelled in the pool by capturing a double in 100m and 200m butterfly. Pakistan’s third gold in swimming came in 4 x 200m freestyle relay.

Grappler Mohammad Bashir Bhola Bhala secured country’s last gold in 97.130kg of wrestling event.

Final medals table

G S B

India 102 58 37

Nepal 31 10 24

Sri Lanka 16 42 62

Pakistan 10 36 30

Bangladesh 2 10 35

Bhutan 1 6 7

Maldives - - 4

— A.Z.

(To be continued)