Aisam and Aqeel qualify for last 16 in tennis: Washout in swimming, taekwondo
TAIF, April 13: Pakistan faced a complete washout in swimming and taekwondo but registered a consolation win in the last pool match in basketball in the 1st Islamic Games being held in different cities of Saudi Arabia.
However there was some good news for the Pakistan camp from the tennis court where Aqeel Khan , like teammate Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, qualified for the pre-quarterfinals of the singles event. In volleyball, Pakistan reached the quarterfinals.
At GPYW pool, five more swimmers failed to qualify for the finals on the last day of the competition as the field has been dominated by Kazakhstan who had captured nine gold medals till midday. The finals of five events are scheduled to be held in the evening and chances are there for Kazakhstan to earn more medals.
In 50 metres breaststroke, Muhammad Faiz came 4th in the heat clocking 30.27 seconds. Imdad Ali took 5th spot with a time of 30.50 seconds.
In 50metres freestyle, Adil Beg clocked 26.14 seconds to earn the 6th spot in his heat while Muhammad Hameer with 27.38 points remained 8th.
In 4x100 metres medley relay the quartet of Ali Gul, Abdul Aziz, Imdad Ali and Muhammad Faiz clocked four minutes 25.08 and remained 6th.
TAEKWONDO
At Om Al Gura University, Makkah, Pakistan competed in three events but were defeated in the first round. In 48 kgs, Shahzad Ahmad Malik lost to Ayman Jalal of Jordan. In 58 kgs, Faheem Jawad ousted by Nabeel Talal Hasan of Saudi Arabia while Under-62 kgs, Rehmat Jan was defeated by Mina Fayaz Fahmi Khalil of Egypt.
On Thursday, Pakistan’s Shahzada M Asif Khan who got bye in the first round will compete in Under-67 kgs category against an Indonesian as last Pakistani.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran had claimed one gold medal each and they have equal chances to gain the top position.
BASKETBALL
Pakistan eventually registered a win in the basketball event beating Tajikistan 73-51 in the last pool match at Prince Mohammed Bin Abdul Aziz sports City, Madinah.
Now Pakistan will play the play-off match for the 9th to 16th position against a team which will be decided later.
Pakistan led from start to finish. In the first session, Pakistan had 19-12 lead and maintained it in the second 35-22. Keeping an attacking game, Pakistan finished the third session at 51-39 before making the tally in the fourth. From Pakistan, Sher Bahadur scored 21 points while Ameer Alam contributed 16 points.
TENNIS
Pakistan tennis star Aqeel Khan had qualified for the pre-quarterfinals of the tennis event at King Fahad Sport City, Taif thrashing Yakayau of Tajikistan in straight sets 6-1, 6-0..
Aqeel did not face any hard opposition from the Tajik. Yakayau could only hold his first serve in the first set as Aqeel taught him a lesson of tennis. In the next set Aqeel showed no mercy for the Tajik and wrapped up it without dropping any game to continue the winning run.
In the team event, Pakistan will meet Somalia later in the evening.
Pakistan has bright chances to claim gold medals in all the three events of the tennis after showing miserable performances in other disciplines.
Meanwhile,there are no ball-pickers standing in the court to hand over the ball to the players. Only two umpires on the side lines are standing to assist the chair umpire.
VOLLEYBALL
Pakistan thrashed Palestine in straight set in the last pool match to move into the quarterfinals league at the GPYW Club courts in Jeddah.
As was expected Pakistan carved out an easy win with the score being 25-13, 25-19, 25-15. The match lasted 75 minutes.
Pakistan had defeated Iraq in the opener but lost to a strong team of Iran after a well-contested competition in the second match.
Iran entered the quarterfinals league as top team while Palestine made the exit from the three-team pool.
Pakistan did not allow Palestinians to settle down throughout the game. Smashers Sanaullah, Naseer and Irfan Nawaz excelled in their department to score point after point. The blocking of the Pakistan team was also impressive.
Now Pakistan will play three matches in the quarterfinals league.
Assistant coach Mohammad Ashraf said that the draws for the league would be taken out in the night.
He said that the team had achieved a landmark by qualifying for the next round.
“Though the next stage is hard one we will try our level best to continue our march in the contest”, he said.
HANDBALL
After a lot of confusion, the Pakistan handball team left for Islamabad from Jeddah on Wednesday.
The handball team had lost all the matches in the Islamic Games.
The Pakistani officials of the team received unofficial instruction a couple of days before from the organizers to leave the hotel after they had failed to move into the next round.
But hours before the departure , secretary of the Pakistan contingent Khalid Mahmood said them not to leave the hotel since no official instructions were passed on to him in this connection.
When the team officials started effort to cancel the seat reservation, they came to know officially that the team had to leave the hotel.
DOPE TEST
As many as 85 urine samples of medal winners in the first Islamic Games had been taken for dope test, said Dr Rasheed al-Tunisia, president of anti doping committee.
He said that the samples were collected in three days for drug tests and most of them collected from the game of swimming, diving and karatekas.
The results would be announced when the samples arrive back from Dubai and Tunisia, he said.