KARACHI, Nov 25: Boxing is the only discipline in which Pakistanis have done better then all other sports, having won regular medals in the Asian Games. Even the track and field, which once used to be the domain of Pakistan in the yesteryear, comes after boxing.
The other significant thing is that Pakistani pugilists have won medals in every Asian Games for almost half of the century (48-years) starting at Tokyo in 1958.
According to statistics, Pakistan’s boxing medal tally in Asian Games comes to 60 - 6-20-34.
Twice Pakistan grabbed two gold medals - first at Jakarta in 1962 and later at Bangkok in 1978. The recipients at Jakarta were soldiers Barkat Ali (heavyweight) and Mohammad Safdar (light heavyweight) while those who did the country proud in the Thai capital were Imtiaz Mahmood (heavyweight) and Iqbal Mohammad (light heavyweight).
The remaining two golds were won by Abrar Hussain (welterweight) at Beijing and Meherullah Lassi (featherweight) at Busan. —A.Z.
Pakistan’s achievement at a glance
Year Venue G S B
1958 Tokyo - 2 2
1962 Jakarta 2 1 2
1966 Bangkok - 2 2
1970 Bangkok - 1 3
1974 Tehran - - 4
1978 Bangkok 2 1 3
1982 Delhi - 2 5
1986 Seoul - 2 3
1990 Beijing 1 1 4
1994 Hiroshima - 3 2
1998 Bangkok - 1 3
2002 Busan 1 4 1