KARACHI, April 12: The experienced sailors of Pakistan Navy have maintained a firm grip for winning top honours in the 30th National Games regatta by adding three more gold medals to their tally on Thursday.

The naval sailors have so far collected 5-6-4 medals out of eight events. The best of three Match Racing event is scheduled for Friday.

The pair of former Asian silver medallist Mamoon Sadiq/Rana Waqas gave Navy the Enterprise gold. Hameed Baloch/Najeebullah, also of Navy, settled for silver while Khalil/Haji Raza (Army) earned the bronze.

The Navy won the other two golds through Ashraf Javaid (Laser Radial) and Ashfaq Iqbal (Laser Standard).

Ashfaq’s gold came after a protest which was upheld by the committee.

The other two gold medals went to Xeres Avari/Mahboob (Sindh) in 470 Class and Tanveer (PAF) in Mistral.

Navy had earlier grabbed the Optimist (boys) and Laser 4.7 golds while the Optimist (girls) gold was annexed by PAF.

Results:

Enterprise Class:

1-Mamoon Sadiq/Rana Waqas (Navy); 2-Hameed Baluch/Najeebullah (Navy); 3-A. Khalil/Haji Raza (Army).

470 Class:

1-Xeres Avari/M. Mahboob (Sindh); 2-M. Riaz/Wasey (Navy); 3-M.Zia/Tahir (Navy).

Laser Radial:

1-Ashraf Javaid (Navy); 2-Abbasi (PAF); 3-Walayat (Navy).

Medal’s position

G S B

Navy 5 6 4

PAF 2 1 3

Sindh 1 0 0

Army 0 1 1

CANOEING

The canoeists of Pakistan Navy are on way to making a clean sweep of the games canoeing event at the National Sailing Centre on Thursday.

They have run away with all the 10 gold medals that have been decided so far. The remaining five finals are slated for Friday when the competition concludes.

Six teams –Navy, Railways, Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and NWFP – are featuring in the event which has been included as demonstration sport. The medals will not be counted in the Quaid-i-Azam trophy.

Results:

C-1 1000M:

1-Syed Sajjad Hussain (Navy); 2-Abid Khan Afridi (Sindh); 3-Tanveer (Rlys).

C-2:

1-Mushtaq/Ghulam Mustafa (Navy); 2-Asim Shah/Abbas (Sindh); 3-Nasir Yaqoob/Imran Khan (Bal).

K-4 1000M:

1-Tahir Shahzad, Asad Mahmood, Shahjan Khan, Tasleem Raza (Navy); 2-Tayeb Abbas, Rizwan, Nawaz Butt, Imran Akram (Rlys); 3-M. Yousuf, Abu Bakr Durni, Mehar Dil Khan, Ziauddin (Bal).

C-1 500M:

1-Nasir Iqbal (Navy); 2-Abid Khan Afridi (Sindh); 3-Tanveer (Rlys).

C-2:

1-Mahboob Ali/Khalid Mahmood (Navy); 2-Asim Shah/Abbas (Sindh); 3-Fazlur Rehman/Majid Baluch (Rlys).

K-2:

1-Sadaqat Hussain/Tasleem Raza (Navy); 2-Rizwan/Zeeshan (Rlys); 3-Yousuf/Ziadin Qasi (Bal).

K-1:

1-Sadaqat Hussain (Navy); 2-Miajavid (Rlys); 3-Ghulam Rasool (Sindh).

K-1 1000M:

1-Shah Jehan Khan (Navy); 2-Rashid (Rlys); 3-Ghulam Rasool (Sindh).

K-2:

1-Shah Jehan Khan/Aman (Navy); 2-Rashid/Kamran (Rlys); 3-Sangeen/Sarang Zeb (Sindh).

K-4 500M:

1-Nadeem, Waseem, Haji Ejaz, Nishat Ahmed (Navy); 2-Yousuf, Abu Baker, Mohammad Akram, Ziadin Qasi (Bal); 3-Rehmat Ali, Murad, Azam, Shahid (Rlys).

BADMINTON

Wapda’s Umer Zeeshan pulled off an upset when he toppled reigning national champion Ahsan Qamar (Sindh) in straight sets to reach the men’s singles final of the badminton event at PSB Coaching Centre on Thursday.

Umer, who lost to Ahsan in the final of the national championship at Lahore in the recent past, avenged his defeat by registering 21-17, 22-20 win.

He now meets his departmental-mate and Pakistan No 1 Wajid Ali who in the other pre-final accounted for Sindh’s Ali Mehdi 21-11, 21-16.

Sindh’s former national junior champion, Sara Khan, also created quite a stir when she whipped reigning national champion Ayesha Akram (Punjab) to cruise in the women’s singles final. She was home 21-12, 13-7 (retd).

She is drawn to meet Wapda’s Asma Butt, the National Games defending champion, who edged past her younger sister Uzma (Wapda) 21-15, 21-16.

The men’s singles, doubles and women’s singles, doubles will be played Friday.

Results:

Men’s singles (semi-finals):

Umer Zeeshan (Wapda) bt Ahsan Qamar (Sindh) 21-17, 22-20; Wajid Ali (Wapda) bt Ali Mehdi (Sindh) 21-11, 21-16.

Women’s singles (semi-finals):

Sara Khan (Sindh) bt Ayesha Akram (Pun)21-12, 13-7 (retd); Asma Butt (Wapda) bt Uzma Butt (Wapda) 21-15, 21-16.

TENNIS

Assisted by Pakistan’s top player Aqeel Khan, Wapda handed a straight defeat to Army to claim men’s team event gold in the games tennis competition at the CDGK Sports Complex on Thursday.

Aqeel gave Wapda 1-0 lead when he beat his younger brother Yasir 6-3, 6-4 while M. Khaliq completed the rout by getting the better of Taimur 6-0, 6-3.

PAF beat Punjab 2-1 to secure the bronze.

Pre-favourite Nida Waseem cruised in the women’s singles final when she disposed off the challenge from Sara Mahboob 6-4, 6-0 on Thursday.

Nida now meets Natasha Afridi who posted 6-2, 6-4 win over Nyla Khan.

Results:

Men’s team event final:

Wapda bt Army 2-0.

Aqeel Khan bt Yasir Khan 6-3, 6-4; M. Khaliq bt Capt. Taimur 6-0, 6-3.

Playoff for 3rd position:

PAF bt Punjab 2-1.

Inam Gul bt Munir Ashiq 6-4, 6-0; Shehzad lost to Shahzaib Niazi 1-6, 3-6; Inam Gul/Mahmood Khan bt Munir Ashiq/Shahzaib Niazi 6-2, 6-4.

Men’s singles:

Aqeel Khan bt Usman Ejaz 6-0, 6-0; Shahzad Khan bt Israr Gul 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.

Men’s doubles:

M. Khaliq/Aqeel Khan bt Shahzaib Niazi/Munir Ashiq 6-3, 6-4; Rashid Malik/Capt. Taimur bt Ayaz Khan/Haroon Rasheed 6-4, 6-4.

Ladies singles (semi-finals):

Nida Waseem bt Sara Mahboob 6-4, 6-0; Natasha Afridi bt Nyla Khan 6-2, 6-4.

Ladies doubles (semi-finals):

Sara Mahboob/Natasha Afridi bt Sana Khan/Sadia Rashid 6-2, 6-0; Nida Waseem/Farah Khurshid bt Seher Khwaja/Ghazala Yasmeen 6-1, 6-1. —AZ