GLASGOW: Pakistan’s swimmers endured another forgettable day in the Glasgow pool at the Commonwealth Games on Saturday as Hamza Asif and Hareem Malik both crashed out in the heats, with Jehanara Nabi and Ahmad Durrani also failing to advance later in the session.
Hamza finished 39th overall among 68 swimmers in the men’s 50m freestyle, clocking 24.17 seconds — more than a second off the 23.02 that secured the final semi-final spot, leaving the Pakistani comfortably adrift of the top-16 cut.
In the women’s 100m breaststroke, Hareem finished 27th out of 28 swimmers with a time of 1:22.51 in the heats.
Hareem turned at the 50m mark in 38.19 seconds before fading badly over the final length with a split of 44.32 seconds.
Her time was nearly 12 seconds slower than the 1:10.70 that earned the last qualification spot, and 16.17 seconds behind race leader Angharad Evans of Scotland.
Only the top 16 progressed to the semi-finals.
The disappointment extended to the evening session as Jehanara finished sixth in her heat of the women’s 200m freestyle, clocking 2:11.16 — well off the 1:59.16 that secured the final qualification spot.
In the men’s 400m freestyle, Ahmad also failed to reach the final, posting 4:14.85 in his heat.
The results continued a grim trend for Pakistan’s swimmers, who also drew a blank on the opening day when both Jehanara and Ahmed failed to qualify from their respective heats.
In lawn bowls, Mohammad Ayub Qureshi remained winless as he slumped to a 2-0 defeat against England’s Sam Tolchard.
SCOTT SPLITS AUSTRALIAN SWIM DOMINANCE
On Friday, Duncan Scott delivered hosts Scotland’s first gold medal of the Games to break up Australia’s dominance of the pool.
Scott set a Games record of 1min 56.38sec to win the 200-metre individual medley from New Zealand’s Lewis Clareburt and England’s Thomas Dean.
The 29-year-old now has four Commonwealth golds and 14 medals in total.
Elsewhere, Australia’s green and gold topped the podium. Lani Pallister led an Australian 1-2-3 in the women’s 400m freestyle.
Jenna Forrester took bronze in the first medal race of the night and then denied Katie Shanahan a Scottish gold to narrowly edge the women’s 200m backstroke.
Australia led home England and South Africa in both the men’s and women’s 4x100m freestyle races.
The Australian men’s team of Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor, Harrison Turner and Kyle Chalmers set a new Games record of 3mins 09.49sec.
By securing South Africa’s bronze on the final leg of the men’s race, Chad le Clos set a record with his 19th Commonwealth medal, more than any other male athlete.
CANADA WIN DISRUPTED GYMNASTICS
Canada claimed gold in the men’s gymnastics team final, but the event was overshadowed by a sickening fall for England’s Gabriel Langton.
England were second heading into the final apparatus on the high bar when Langton slipped off and came down head first.
The 19-year-old was able to move his arms and legs before being carefully stretchered away from the arena, but the competition was held up for 20 minutes as he received medical attention.
The fall also allowed Canada to ease to gold, with England taking silver and Australia edging out Scotland for bronze.
Team officials later said that Langton was conscious and speaking with doctors.
Mark Swan won the first gold of the Games with a dramatic victory in the men’s lightweight category of the para powerlifting.
Swan lifted 222kg, more than three times his body weight.
Nigeria dominated the other para powerlifting events with three golds, including a world record of 175kg for Folashade Oluwafemiayo in the heavyweight division.
Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2026