Naseem emerges as region’s fastest woman
Pakistan win four golds to cap off a medal-laden day
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
By Alam Zeb Safi
KARACHI: Pakistan’s Naseem Hameed became the fastest woman of the region on Monday when she clinched gold medal in the 100m race of the athletics competition during the 11th South Asian Games being held in Bangladesh.
At the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka, the 22-year old athlete produced her career-best feat when she covered the required distance in 11.81 seconds to help her country finish with four gold in athletics, eclipsing the team’s three gold medals mark of the previous edition. Naseem, who represents Army at the domestic level, was followed by Sri Lankans Pramila Priyadarshani and Achala Shalika Dias who finished with 11.93 and 12.12 seconds respectively.
Naseem is an emerging athlete and was also the part of the Pakistan bronze medallist team in the 4X100m relay during the 10th South Asian Games which were staged in Colombo, in August 2006. She also became the first Pakistani athlete in the 26-year long history of the event to have achieved such a remarkable distinction.
Earlier, Basharat Ali (discus throw), Zafar Iqbal (triple jump) and Mohsin Ali (110m hurdles) had claimed gold medals while Haq Nawaz (400m hurdles) and Muhammad Imran (javelin throw) clinched silver medals. Liaquat Ali (100m) won bronze while the other bronze came in 4x100m relay.
“Our athletes performed well in spite of a poor preparation and we will announce cash prizes for them,” the secretary of the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) Khlaid Mehmood told ‘The News’ on Monday.
“The POA chief General Arif Hassan has announced Rs100,000 for Naseem and we are thankful to him,” Khalid said. Meanwhile, Niamatullah broke the disappointing run of the Pakistan boxing team; he took the only gold medal in the competition when he defeated Bhutan’s Sigyel in the final while the top boxer of the country Muhammad Waseem, also from Quetta, lost to Suranjoy Singh of India to finish with a silver medal yesterday.
In the 54kg, Quetta-born Niamatullah remained in good control right from the start against his Bhutanese rival. He kept leading the bout by using good offensive tactics to secure a convincing 14-8 victory.
Captain Muhammad Waseem had to content with silver as expected when he was outclassed by the Asian champion Suranjoy Singh of India in the 51kg final. Waseem, who had made a cut for the title clash after a brief spell of fever, however, was able to take the game to the third round against his strong opponent before losing it 4-11.
Earlier, Nadir Baloch (48kg) and Aamir Khan (64kg) finished with bronze medals while Adnan Hussain (60kg) and Abid Ali (57kg) failed to make it to the semifinals.
This time the fights were held only in six lower weights. In the previous edition which was conducted in all the 11 weight categories, the national pugilists finished with seven gold medals.
However, later on, two gold medals were deducted from Pakistan’s tally when Mehrullah Lassi and Faisal Karim were tested positive for using cannabis in the eight-nation spectacle.
Similarly, In karate, the Commonwealth Championship gold medallist Saadi Abbas got silver in the -67kg fight while Ainuddin claimed bronze in -75kg.
In taekwondo, Shah Adil dropped a bronze in Pakistan’s box in the -87kg.
Till last reports received, Pakistan were trailing second with 19 gold, 25 silver and 34 bronze.
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=223256
