Pakistan’s Olympics journey ends as Najma finishes last in 200m race

Published August 15, 2016
Najma Parveen competes in the Women's 200m Round 1 during the athletics event at the Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. — AFP
Najma Parveen competes in the Women's 200m Round 1 during the athletics event at the Rio Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. — AFP

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Olympics journey came to an end as female athlete Najma Parveen failed to qualify for the main round of women’s 200 metre race on Monday.

Najma finished last in the race and took 26.11 seconds to reach the finish mark. She was the last of the country’s seven-member contingent to bow out of the Games.

Earlier, Judoka Shah Hussain, who was one of the three Pakistanis to qualify for the mega event, failed to make it to the final round.


It has been 24 years since Pakistan last won an Olympics medal.


After getting bye into the first round, Hussain was knocked out by Ukrainian Artem Bloshenko in the second round of men’s 100 KG Judo event.

Before Hussain, shooter Minhal Sohail and swimmer Haris Bandey, went out with unimpressive stints.

Pakistan’s flag bearer Ghulam Mustafa Bashir and Liana Swan, who competed in men’s 25-meter rapid fire pistol event and women’s 50-metre freestyle respectively, could not help Pakistan break its medal jinx either.

It has now been 24 years since Pakistan last won an Olympics medal.

It was the first time that Pakistan’s national hockey team was not featuring in the mega event as it failed to qualify.

Most of the other athletes, too, for the quadrennial sports spectacle got entry through wildcard or continental quota system.

Not even a single boxer could qualify for the Olympics although one of Pakistan’s two non-hockey medals came through boxing in the Games’ 1988 edition.


An earlier version of this story erroneously mentioned Pakistan’s flag bearer Ghulam Mustafa Bashir as Ghuman Mustafa Bashir. The error is regretted.

Opinion

Editorial

Football elections
17 Nov, 2024

Football elections

PAKISTAN football enters the most crucial juncture of its ‘normalisation’ era next week, when an Extraordinary...
IMF’s concern
17 Nov, 2024

IMF’s concern

ON Friday, the IMF team wrapped up its weeklong unscheduled talks on the Fund’s ongoing $7bn programme with the...
‘Un-Islamic’ VPNs
Updated 17 Nov, 2024

‘Un-Islamic’ VPNs

If curbing pornography is really the country’s foremost concern while it stumbles from one crisis to the next, there must be better ways to do so.
Agriculture tax
Updated 16 Nov, 2024

Agriculture tax

Amendments made in Punjab's agri income tax law are crucial to make the system equitable.
Genocidal violence
16 Nov, 2024

Genocidal violence

A RECENTLY released UN report confirms what many around the world already know: that Israel has been using genocidal...
Breathless Punjab
16 Nov, 2024

Breathless Punjab

PUNJAB’s smog crisis has effectively spiralled out of control, with air quality readings shattering all past...