QUETTA: The battle of supremacy at the National Games continued between sporting powerhouses Pakistan Army and Wapda with the two departments continuing to set the pace in Quetta.
Army and Wapda clashed in a handball final on Thursday, whilst also showing their dominance over the rest by setting up finals in hockey, badminton, volleyball on Thursday and although Pakistan Navy are level with Wapda on seven golds each so far, three behind table-toppers Army, the top-two battle seems between those two.
Wapda grabbed the bragging rights in women’s handball by beating Army 23-15 and the duo are also set to clash in the men’s final on Friday.
The rivals up the gold medal match in men’s hockey with both winning their semi-finals by one-goal margins. A solitary goal from Mehran saw Army edge past Pakistan Air Force 1-0 while goals from Touseeq Arshad and Sohail Anjum helped Wapda edge Navy 2-1.
Wapda made sure of two badminton golds, both in women’s events, with team-mates Mahoor Shehzad and Ghazala Siddique setting up a clash in the singles final and the duo then combining to reach the doubles title match.
Mahoor overpowered Rosheen Ijaz of Sindh 21-7, 21-9 in their singles semi-final with Ghazala cruising past Punjab’s Zubaira Islam 21-6, 21-13 at the Saifullah Magsi Court.
The victorious pair then overcame Army’s Umama Usman and Manal Tariq 21-16, 21-19 in the doubles semi-final to set up a all-Wapda gold medal match against Saima Waqas and Khizra Rasheed, who advanced after Army’s Alja Tariq, playing alongside Ammarah Ishtiaq, withdrew from their last-four clash due to injury.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Murad Ali, Pakistan’s number one men’s shuttler, reached the final with a 21-18, 21-11 win over Army’s Shoaib Riaz. Shoaib’s team-mate Anjum Bashir stands between Murad and golf after he beat Wapda’s Irfan Saeed 21-13, 21-17.
Anjum and Irfan will also clash in the doubles final after the former joined Yasir Ali to down Wapda’s Mohammad Ali Larosh and Awais Zahid 18-21, 21-18, 23-21 while the latter teamed up with Azeem Sarwar to oust Army’s Raja Hasnain and Raja Zulqarnain 21-15, 16-21, 21-17.
There is another Army-Wapda duel in the mixed doubles final as Hasnain and Ammarah overcame Punjab pair of Abuzar Rasheed and Zubaira Islam 21-7, 21-18 while Ali Larosh and Ghazala beat Army’s Shoaib and Manal Tariq 22-20, 21-16.
Army and Wapda will also meet in the final of the women’s volleyball event after both won their semi-finals with identical 3-0 margins. Army romped past Balochistan 25-7, 25-10, 25-6 at the Pakistan Sports Board Hall after Wapda beat Higher Education Commission 25-10, 25-13, 25-12.
PAF, however, eliminated Army from the running for the men’s gold after they registered an exhilarating 3-2 win in their semi-final. PAF won the first set 25-20 only for Army to win the next two 15-25 each only. But PAF recovered to stun Army by winning the last two sets 25-16 and 20-18.
Wapda and Army made winning starts in the baseball event; the former crushing Balochistan 19-0 while the latter taught Islamabad a lesson in a 17-0 rout.
Army, though, were a cut above Wapda and the rest in shooting events with Kishmala Talat winning gold in the women’s 25m pistol and Azhar Abbas topping the men’s 50m pistol.
Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2023