Silver lining for Pakistan’s shooters as athletes claim five bronze medals
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GUWAHATI: Pakistan’s men and women shooting teams won silver medals in 50m rifle prone events at the South Asian Games on Thursday as the country’s track and field stars brought home five bronze.
The men’s shooting team of Umar Siddique, Midrar Ali, Mohammad Amir shot a combined total of 1838.2 to finish second behind India (1871.5) at the Kahilipara Shooting Range.
Umar claimed bronze in the individual event when he shot 182.2 to finish behind Indians Chain Singh (204.6) and Gagan Narang (203.7).
The women’s team, meanwhile, managed a total of 1805.4 to secure silver behind the Indian team which shot a combined score of 1835.6.
The Indian dominance spilled onto the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium with Pakistan’s bronze medals in the men’s 400m hurdles, shot put and triple jump coming behind 1-2 finishes for their arch-rivals.
Mahboob Ali claimed bronze in the 400m hurdles while a throw of 16.28 metres got third place for Mohammad Waseem in the shot put.
Mohammad Afzal leapt 15.76 metres to win the triple jump bronze.
Pakistan’s Liaquat Ali clocked 21.53 seconds to finish third in the men’s 200m, his time 0.53 seconds shy of Sri Lankan winner Suranjava De Silva, while the country’s men’s 4x400m team also ending third behind India and Sri Lanka.
INDO-PAK HOCKEY SHOWDOWN
The return saw Pakistan’s overall medals at the Games rise to 72 (7-22-43), behind table leaders India’s 237 (139-78-20) and second-placed Sri Lanka (25-50-76).
Despite no gold medals being won on Thursday, Pakistan will get a chance to improve their gold medal tally on Friday when they face India in the men’s hockey summit clash.
It will be the fourth time the two arch-rivals will clash in the final of men’s hockey at the regional extravaganza.
Pakistan beat India in both the 2004 and 2010 finals in Colombo and Dhaka, respectively while India won the gold in 1995 in Madras.
And the Greenshirts will go into the final with high spirits having already won 2-1 against India in the group stage.
Medals table
Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
India 158 78 20 236
Sri Lanka 25 49 76 150
Pakistan 7 22 43 72
Bangladesh 4 10 40 54
Nepal 1 12 19 32
Afghanistan 1 3 11 15
Maldives 0 2 1 3
Bhutan 0 1 4 5
Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2016
