KARACHI: Star studded Army and Wapda lived up to their top billing when they retained the men’s and women’s titles respectively as the curtain falls on the 48th National Athletics Championship at the tartan track of the PSB Coaching Centre on Sunday.
The soldiers amassed 456 points from 15 golds, 14 silvers and six bronze medals to stretch their supremacy in the men’s.
Wapda finished runners-up with a tally of 285 points from seven golds, seven silvers and 12 bronze medals while the HEC had to be content with third position with 63 points securing two silvers and a bronze.
Wapda athletes produced awesome performance while maintaining their stranglehold in the women’s category. They seized 439 points to top the table fetching 16 golds, 13 silvers and five bronze.
Army collected 249 points from five golds, seven silvers and five bronze to finish runners-up. HEC took the third spot with 80 points from seven bronze.
Olympian Najma Perveen of Wapda caught the eye equalling her Quetta feat of securing six gold medals for the second time running.
Her six golds include 100m, 200m, 400m, 400m hurdles, 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relays.
On the concluding day, she helped her team clinch the two relays besides sprinting to glory in the 200metres.
Rabia Ashiq, also of Wapda, excelled in long distance returning with a haul of four golds including 4 x 400m relay.
Having already won the 800m and 1500m, she sweats under the sun by emerging victorious in the 5000m on the concluding day. She clocked 19:39.23 seconds for the honours.
Nadeem Hussain of Army claimed the marathon gold as his team-mate Israr Mohammad took silver and Mohsin Raza Raza of Wapda bronze.
Nadeem covered the 42.195km distance in 2:31.15 getting the better of Israr who completed the race in 2:38.11.
Olympian Najma equals her six gold medals feat
The marathon that was started from the PSB Coaching Centre on Sunday morning culminated at the same venue after passing through Karsaz, Shahra-e-Faisal, Airport, Malir Cantt gate five, Saadi Town and back.
The soldiers also dominated decathlon securing the top two positions. Akhtar Munir won top honours with a tally of 6430 points while Danish Rashid secured silver with 5996 points. Zeeshan Matloob of AJ&K took bronze with 5327 points.
The heptathlon women’s ended in a blaze of glory for Ume Habiba of Wapda who grabbed 3523 points. Alia Noor, also of Wapda, stood second with 3217 points.
Only two new records – women’s triple jump and women’s five km walk – were established during the meet.
Corps Commandar five Corps Lt Gen Shahid Baig Mirza, who graced the concluding day’s session, awarded the men’s winning trophy to jubilant Army team and women’s trophy to Wapda outfit.
He also presented runners-up and third positions trophies in the men’s and women’s categories.
During his stay at the venue, he also witnessed men’s, women’s 4 x 400m relay, womens’ 5000m and women’s long jump.
He also posed for photographs with the victorious Army and Wapda teams after declaring the three-day meet closed.
The Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) President in his welcome speech thanked the guest for acceding to the Sindh association’s request to lay one more tartan track in the city at a venue to be decided with the consent of AFP.
Secretary of the Inter-provincial Coordination Raja Nadir Pervaiz was also present on the occasion.
The AFP secretary Mohammad Zafar and the organising secretary Zahid Rizvi was also present.
Former international athlete John Permal, a native of the city, who remained Fastest Man of Pakistan for a decade, made a pleasant entry at the venue after a long time to the delight of track and field fraternity who made selfies with him.
Also present among others were veteran athletes Mohammad Talib, Arshad Saleem, Zafar Ibne Yaqoob, Shah Naeem Zafar, Mahboob Dawood, Imran Khan and Joel Andrews.
Results:
Marathon men’s: 1-Nadeem Hussain (Army), 2-Israr Mohammad (Army), 3-Mohsin Raza (Wapda). Time: 2.31.15
1500 metres men’s: 1-Ateeq-ur-Rehman (Army), 2-Rameez Javed Mirza (Army), 3-Sohail Aamir (Wapda). Time: 3:55.94
4x100 metres relay men’s: 1-Army (Uzair Rehman, Liaquat, Ubaid, Shahbaz), 2-Wapda (Zaigham, Gohar, Majid, Tanveer), 3-PAF (Mohsin, Samiullah, Rashid, Umair). Time: 40.35
Heptathlon women’s: 1-Ume Habiba (Wapda), 2-Alia Noor (Wapda), 3-Ghazala (HEC). 3523 points.
4x100 metres relay women’s: 1-Wapda (Najma, Sahib-e-Asra, Arooj, Sumira), 2-Army (Hiba, Maria, Shehla, Samra), 3-HEC (Bisma, Turab, Saba, Shafaq). Time: 48.68
Discus throw women’s: 1-Zaneet Perveen (Wapda), 2-Abida Changezi (Railways), 3-Remisha Khan (Railways). Dist: 35.36
Decathlon men’s: 1-Akhtar Munir (Army), 2-Danish Rashid (Army), 3-Zeeshan Matloob (AJK). 6430 points
200 metres men’s: 1-Najma Perveen (Wapda), 2-Sahib-e-Asra (Wapda), 3-Maria Maratab (Army). Time: 25.68
4x400 metres relay men’s: 1-Army (Mehboob, Mazhar, Waqar, Nokar), 2-Wapda (Asad, Shahid, Fakhar, Sharafat), 3-HEC (Munam, Nasir, Ilyas, Sadat).. Time: 3:10.08
4x400 metres relay women’s: 1-Wapda (Najma, Sahib-e-Asra, Rabia, Sambia), 2-Army (Maria, Abida, Shehla, Sumra), 3-Punjab (Binish, Tahrem, Khadija, Esha). Time: 4:11.49
5000 metres women’s: 1-Rabia Ashiq (Wapda), 2-Farhat Bano (Wapda), 3-Suneha (Army). Time: 19:39.23
High jump men’s: 1-Shiraz Khan (Wapda), 2-Mohammad Maqsood (Army), 3-Azmat (PAF). Height: 2.01
Long jump women’s: 1-Mariam Babar (Wapda), 2-Maria Maratab (Army), 3-Amina Siraj (Wapda). Dist: 5.43
Discus throw men’s: 1-Mohammad Shamshad (Army), 2-Ali Mehtab (Wapda), 3-Asmatullah (Army). Dist: 50.46.
Final medals/points table
Men’s
Teams G S B P
Army 15 14 6 456
Wapda 7 7 12 285
PAF 1 0 2 74
HEC 0 2 1 63
Railways 0 0 1 20
Punjab 0 0 0 15
Fata 0 0 0 9
Gilgit-Baltistan 0 0 0 8
AJ&K 0 0 1 6
Islamabad 0 0 0 4
Sindh 0 0 0 3
Balochistan 0 0 0 2
Police 0 0 0 2
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 0 0 0 1
Women’s
Wapda 16 13 5 439
Army 5 7 5 249
HEC 0 0 7 80
Punjab 0 0 2 38
Railways 0 1 1 30
Sindh 0 0 0 17
Balochistan 0 0 1 6
Gilgit-Baltistan 0 0 0 2
Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2017