LAHORE: Shajar Abbas maintained his supremacy as the country’s fastest sprinter after he claimed the 100-metre gold during the 51st National Athletics Championship at the Artillery Regimental Centre, Attock on Thursday.

The 23-year-old Shajar, representing Wapda, came home in 10.2 seconds ahead of team-mate Gohar Shahbaz and Ali Ahmed of HEC.

In the women’s 100m final, Wapda’s Faiqa Riaz clinched gold after finishing in 12.00 seconds ahead of Sunaina Shaheen and Amtul Rehman.

Faiqa also won the women’s long jump with a leap of 5.43 metres.

Despite Wapda’s dominance in the 100m sprints, Army lead the standings with 12 golds across both men’s and women’s events. Wapda are second with 11.

Army’s polevaulters Jaffer Ashraf and Uzma Shaheen set new national records, clearing the bar at of 4.94 and 2.60 metres respectively in the men’s and women’s events.

They also swept the 80m races in both categories; Waqas Akbar and Rabeela Farooq the respective winners. Rabeela also won the women’s 1500m race.

Tajamal Hussain won the men’s 110m hurdles in a time of 14 seconds, with Abid Razzaq winning the men’s 400m hurdles and Talha Saleem added to Army’s golden haul by winning the 3000m steeplechase.

Army’s other golds came through Nouman Javed, whose leap of 15.22m saw him win the men’s triple jump, and Jamshed Ali in the men’s shot put.

Their race-walkers also shone with Aamer Shehzad winning the men’s 20km and Kanwal Faiz triumphing in the women’s 5km.

Wapda’s Sohail Aamir won the men’s 5000m race while Farhat Bano was a winner in the women’s 10,000m. Fatima Hussain threw the javelin 40.05 metres to win the women’s gold while Sheroz Khan leapt 2.09 metres to win the high jump.

Musrat Shaheen added to Wapda’s tally by winning the women’s 400m hurdles with Ghazala Ramzan winnig the 100m hurdles by finishing in 14.8 seconds.

Wapda’s other golds came through Mahnoor Dogar in the women’s shot put and Azhar Abbas in the hammer.

All three golds for Higher Education Commission have come in the women’s events with Amtul Rehman’s 11.3m leap giving her victory in the triple jump. Her team-mates Uzma Azam and Sunana Musawar took golds in the hammer throw and 400m respectively.

Pakistan Air Force’s Abdul Moeed won the men’s 400m, clocking 47.9 seconds, with team-mate Shams-ul-Haq taking gold in the discus throw.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2023