ISLAMABAD: Seven gold medals in track and field and five in
judo events on the opening day of competition at the Quaid-i-Azam
Inter-provincial Youth Games saw Punjab top the medals table on Tuesday.
With 34 medals overall, comprising 14 gold, 12 silver
and eight bronze, Punjab had a comfortable lead over second-placed
Balochistan (5-7-11) and third-placed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (5-2-9).
Sindh
(4-5-3) are fourth ahead of Fata (2-3-6) with Gilgit Balitistan far
away in sixth with their lone gold in judo making up a grand total of
three medals. Islamabad and Azad Jammu and Kashmir are tied at the
bottom with identical records of a silver and four bronze.
Sindh’s
sprinters left everyone trailing in their wake as they completed a
men’s-women’s 100m double, adding to the men’s 800m won by Umar Sadat
who won in a time of 2:01:60, narrowly edging Balochistan’s Iftikhar
Ahmed (2:01:94).
There was an even smaller margin of
victory in men’s 100m as Abdul Moeed Baloch finished in 10.92 to just
shade Laeeq Naveed from Punjab by 0.03 seconds.
The
margin of victory was more pronounced in the women’s race as Shafaq
Afreen’s time of 13.26 saw her finish comfortably ahead of Punjab’s
Torab Zehra (13.38).
Balochistan were also on fire on
the track, winning three gold medals thanks to Nasir Ali’s victory in
16:08:70 in the men’s 5000m and a double in the men’s and women’s 400m
hurdles courtesy Amir Ali and Beenish respectively.
Punjab
clinched only two golds on the track — Saba winning the women’s 1500m
in 5:28:94 while Rubab took the women’s 100m hurdles — but it was in the
field events where they showed their supremacy.
Mahnoor won both the women’s shot put and javelin throw,
Sunaina won the women’s long jump, Mohammad Yasir grabbed gold in the
men’s javelin throw, while Afzal Ahmed’s leap of 1.85m saw him triumph
in the men’s high jump.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also won two
gold medals in athletics as Shoaib Khan won the long jump with a
distance of 7.19m while Zohaib Khan’s throw of 13.20m saw him grab
victory in men’s javelin.
At the Mushaf Squash Complex,
Khyber Paktunkhwa were utterly dominant in the women’s singles event as
Laiba Ijaz overcame team-mate Nimra Aqeel 11-6, 12-10, 11-8 in the
final.
“I dedicate this to Pakistan squash great Qamar
Zaman because I’m here thanks to his involvement at the Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa Women’s Squash Academy,” Laiba — the country’s top-ranked
women’s under-15 player, said.
Punjab, meanwhile, showed their supremacy at the Biomechanical Lab Hall where their judokas came out on top.
Hogan
won the men’s 50kg title, Umar Mukhtar claimed gold in the men’s 66kg
while Faisal took the top honours in the open weight.
The women judokas added two more golds to that tally with Saba triumphant in the 40kg category and Mufsal winning the 44kg.
Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa and Fata shared two golds each — Waheed (men’s 60kg) and
Shah Rukh (women’s 36kg) for the former and Ahsan (men’s 55kg) and Nadia
(women’s 48kg) for the latter — while Gilgit Baltistan’s Sammiya won
the first gold for her province in the women’s open weight.
HURDLERS compete during the athletics event.
Two golds in karate rounded of Punjab’s tally for the
day as Memoon Qadir triumphed in the women’s individual kata and
Memoona, Saira and Ayesha combined to grab the women’s team kata.
Balochistan also won two karate gold medals courtesy Asmatullah in men’s 50kg and Nazeer, Ashfaq and Aziz in men’s team kata.
Mohammad
Murad of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa grabbed gold in the men’s -55kg event while
Syed Shahnoor of Sindh was the winner in the men’s individual kata.
Sindh
have a good chance of winning the snooker title with Haris Nadeem and
Umer Memon both making it to the semi-finals. Umer beat Balochistan’s
Saif Ali Khan 2-0 while Haris overcame Usman Ahmed of Punjab 2-0.
Punjab’s
Mubashir Raza also advanced into the semis when he beat Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa’s Mohammad Rafiq 2-0 and Amir Sohail of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
completed the last-four line up when he got past Rabish Parwiaz of
Balochistan by the same score.
The semi-final line-up of
the snooker team event was also decided with Punjab, Islamabad, Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh making the final four.
The final
four in men’s netball was also confirmed on Tuesday with Sindh, Punjab,
Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa booking their berths.
