ASHGABAT (Turkme­nistan): Pakistan clinched their first gold medal at the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games on Saturday night when Shahzeb Nawaz and Mohammad Rafique won the duo show final against strong opposition form Thailand.

It took Pakistan’s tally to six medals on the first day of competition at the event which formally opened on Sunday.

Shahzeb and Rafique earlier upset Turkmenistan twins Ahmad and Yousaf Tanriberdyew after a bye helped them go through the opening round.

The Pakistan pair secured 45 points against the Thailand pair who fell short of half a point, scoring 44.5.

“We trained hard back home and after beating the hosts we targeted gold,” said Shazeb.

“We were confident about beating Thailand,” he added.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2017