HANGZHOU: Pakistan taught Uzbekistan a hockey lesson in the men’s tournament at the Asian Games while the men’s squash team finished their pool commitments with a perfect record on Thursday.

Arbaz Ahmed scored five goals, all drag-flick conversions, while Afraz and Rana Abdul Waheed scored three each as Pakistan extended their winning start in Pool ‘A’ to three matches with an 18-2 pummeling of hapless Uzbeks in their morning clash at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium.

Over at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre in the afternoon, the squash team coasted to a 3-0 win over Kuwait to finish top of Pool ‘A’ with five wins out of five and set up a semi-final clash against Hong Kong.

A few hours earlier, Pakistan’s Omar Hamzah Saeed had crashed out of the men’s taekwondo +80kg competition when he lost his quarter-final to Smaiyl Duisebay of Kazakhstan 0-2 at Lin’an Sports Culture & Exhibition Centre. Omar had earlier beaten Qatari Wadhah Al Ahmed in the round of 16.

But in the evening session at the Hangzhou Gymnasium, boxer Zohaib Rasheed got ano­ther win for Pakistan on the day when he made it to the quarter-finals of the men’s 46-51kg competition after beating Sultan Alnuaimi of the United Arab Emirates 5-0 on points.

Elsewhere, things weren’t too rosy for Pakistan with the women’s squash team losing 1-2 to Macau in Pool ‘B’ for their third defeat in four outings while the swimmers yet again failed to make an impact in the pool.

There were defeats in table tennis at the Gongshu Canal Gymnasium while at the shooting range, Gulfam Joseph failed to qualify for the 10m Air Pistol final.

UZBEKS HUMBLED

The hockey team prepped themselves up for the clash against arch-rivals India on Saturday by humbling Uzbekistan.

Pakistan were 5-0 up in the first quarter, having gone 2-0 up in just the second minute with Arshad Liaquat and Rooman bagging field goals. Arbaz got his first in the 10th before captain Umar Bhutta and Abdul Rehman scored two minutes apart.

Pakistan pumped in another six goals in the second quarter to make it 11-1 at half-time; Uzbekistan getting their first goal after going 9-0 down. The men in green stepped off the gas in the last two quarters — scoring four times in the third and getting another three in the fourth — the last coming off a penalty corner converted by Arbaz.

PERFECT RECORD

The squash team, buoyed by their victory over India on Tuesday, ensured they ended the pool stage on a winning high.

Mohammad Asim Khan downed Abdullah Almezayan 11-9, 11-7, 11-9 before Noor Zaman and Nasir Iqbal were made to work by their Kuwaiti opponents.

Noor overcame Ammar Altamimi 11-7, 11-6, 6-11, 13-11 and Nasir produced a stunning final game to end the challenge of Falah Mohammad 11-6, 11-8, 8-11, 9-11, 11-0.

In the women’s event, Mehwish Ali mounted a stunning fightback from two games down Pakistan a consolation point against Macau when she beat Wai Leng Yueng 10-12, 8-11, 11-9, 11-2, 11-7 after her team-mates Noor-ul-Huda Sadiq and Noor-ul-Ain Ijaz had lost the opening two matches.

POINTS WIN

Zohaib was given more points in all three rounds by all five judges in his bout against Alnuaimi as he set up a quarter-final against Uzbek Hasanboy Dusmatov.

But that was as good as it got for Pakistan on the day with Faizan Zahoor and Hoor Fawad crashing out of the men’s and women’s singles table tennis events respectively in the lasty-32 round. Pakistan’s challenge in the men’s and women’s doubles events also ended at the same stage.

Gulfam’s score of 575 in the 10m Air Pistol, meanwhile, saw him placed 17th in the qualification stage with only the top eight qualifying for the final.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2023