KARACHI Pakistan on Tuesday made its Winter Olympics debut when Muhammad Abbas participated in the Alpine skiing event in Vancouver.

Abbas is the lone athlete representing Pakistan at the 2010 Games and participated in the Men's Giant Slalom category at the Whistler Creekside.

Competing in the event as the 96th skier, Abbas finished with a time of 1.38.27minutes; 21 seconds behind the top ranked skier Carlo Janka of Switzerland and improved his overall ranking by finishing 91st.

He was part of a group of eight Pakistani skiers who undertook a nine-week advanced training-and-competition tour of Europe early last year in a bid to earn points and qualify for the Winter Olympics. A skier automatically qualifies for the Winter Olympics if he has an average of 120 Federation de International Skiing points. Half the team was expected to earn the requisite points, but only Abbas managed to do so.

Ski Federation of Pakistan (SFP), led by its President Air Marshal Hifazatullah Khan, had sponsored the trip and has in fact been providing financial, logistical and coaching support to the selected skiers for the past couple of years.

Abbas' results

Time    (Diff)
Int 1 20.22   (+4.25) 
Int 2 53.17   (+12.12) 
Int 3 111.38 (+15.74) 
Finish 138.27 (+21.00)