Rabia Ashiq fails to progress in 800m
Rabia Ashiq takes part in her women’s 800m round 1 heat. -Photo by Reuters
KARACHI: Pakistan’s last medal hope at the London Olympics failed to qualify for the 800m semi-finals at the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday.
Rabia, who was participating through a wild card entry, finished 6th in the heat clocking a time of 2:17.39.
The 20-year old from Lahore also failed to improve on her personal best time of two minutes and 10.65 seconds.
Pamela Jelimo, Lynsey Sharp, Eleni Filandra and Geena Gall qualified from the seven athletes in the heat. Overall, Rabia finished at number 35 out of 45 athletes.
Pakistan will come back empty handed as the rest of its athletes – swimmers Anum Bandey and Israr Hussain, sprinter Liaqat Ali, shooter Khurram Inam and the hockey team – are also out of contention for any medals.
shes just 20. we hope she improves to the level of international players!
Sports that require physical strength we do not stand a chance. We should concentrate on rifle shooting, diving, badminton, table tennis etc.
Although I wholeheartedly support participation in Olympics, Pakistan's performance was dismal and embarrassing. Pakistani sports is only reflecting the state of the country, crippled, a failure, full of corruption and lacking morality and inspiration.
Unless we accept that talent in Pakistan is hard to find because fewer people have the opportunity and required facilities for practice and improvement.Even there is dearth of talent hunters,who,if at all we find one, is not acceptable to vested interests.I wonder if we will ever be able to produce world beaters.
Rabia is my Hero. She fought against all Odds and did what she did. She is opening the doors for the rest of the young Pakistani girls who dream but never get to pursue their dreams. Iqbal Theba, Principal FIGGINS from GLEE
Pakistan Olympics Committee, if it is really serious about improving the country's performance, should have a strategic review of its programs and devise a focused funding/training plan for those sports where Pakistan already has talent and could do better (i.e. niche specialization). Besides hockey, some examples are boxing, wrestling, volleyball, long distance running, weight lifting and shooting. With increased focus and funding to these sports (and selecting athletes based on meritocracy), the perforances will increase and I'm sure the Pakistani athletes will be able to bag a few medals in the coming olympics. This is what most smaller countries (with limited budgets) do and a lot of'em do pretty well in the olympics.
Any other piece meal effort (i.e. inefficient use of resources) will only result in repeat disappointments in the years to come.
Rabia, in my previous comment I criticised the whole society, not YOU. You are great to have the courage to particpate in Olympics, one in millions. Aren't you? How many, out of 8 millions, women in Pakistan did it? Figure it out yourself. This time you smelled success from a few feet. the next time you can even taste it by being on the spot. Now you know what it is like. A GREAT EXPERIENCE.
olympics is about competing and giving your best
no body comes to see weather u wear head scarf or not,we muslims make great fuss about these things but our performance which really counts is pathetic
So what she was not able to qualify. Atleast she competed on wild card entry and did the nation proud. We dont even have decent tracks for these lot to practice stuff. Can the writer of this email run 100 yards ? honestly – I am proud of all the ones who participated…. made me proud as a pakistani…
Its not about winnning .. they participated and fame the name of PAKISTAn.. its enough..
)
In the era of national apathy ,her mere presence in that event was a source of pride for may like me…
Her Efforts , are much appreciated, at least she tried her best, unlike our Hockey team, everyone of them need to be booted out
Salute to these boys & girls who raised Pak flag in Olympics, Our media has gone simply crazy, tomorrow if our media men and women have to compete with BBC and CNN where will they stand ???
No more comments regarding these issues, wish them better luck for next time because they tried their best efforts.
Billions of Rupees wasted on these athletes and olymic associations uptill now… and even no single bronze medal they have brought to the country since 1992.Its just a summer excursion for them I think…!! This consistant poor perfomance depicting that Rio results won't be different from London.
Rabia don't worry @ least you made your country proud by beeing there, better luck next time train harder, if your country can train you some were here in Australia or any other western country, it will be better then you have no fear about your so called mullah's see you in 4years in Rio God bless take care
What if the first 5 people are caught doping
I fail to see why we send Pakistani athletes who are far inferior and don't even clock near the olympic or world records.
What point is it to send them without offering them the best training or even to the extent of scouting for the best in this 180 million plus population. Let's do our homework at home first.
Please can you just once accept it that she was not up to scratch comparing to the other athletes, first it was the so called "Water Car" now this, God knows what is next…The country's athletes have won 10 Olympic medals over 64 years at the games but have not brought home a medal since the 1992 Barcelona Games. Wake up and smell the coffee….
guys what happened to our sportsmanship
money,hardwork training , and good facility is equal to gold medal also add killing instenct none of which we got. so do not discourge just enjoy the games.
Good effort Rabia, you tried your best and that is what matters. We are still proud that you were able to participate. Use this as a learning opportunity, try harder and you will get better results next time.
keep it up dont loose hope.
that is the proof that there is no facility for the atheletes in pakistan , pakistan sports board should work on it !
doesn't matter we loss matter is we never try to do some better next time becz our goverments is totly crack players give u good result if u give them gd facalties nd gd envoirment god bless u all