Athletics’:
- 400m HurdlesThe arena was dominated by Africans who won all the medals. Creve Armando Machava from Mozambique finishing in 50.73 seconds secured first-ever gold at the Islamic Solidarity Games for his country. Amadou Ndiaye from Senegal with 50.21 seconds won the silver medallist and Kurt Couto also from Senegal won the bronze in 50.97 time. Mehboob Ali from Pakistan finishing in 51.15, was on the verge of winning the bronze but finished fourth.
- 4x100m Relay: The Pakistan team was disqualified from the final after an illegal baton exchange. The team included: Liaqat Ali, Mohammad Shahbaz, Nokar and Abaid Ali. The women team consisting of: Najma Parveen, Samra Shabbir, Sahibe Asra, and Maria Maratib timed 48.75 seconds and finished seventh in their final.
- Javelin: Arshad Nadeem won the bronze with a throw of 76.33 metres which was not up to his performance of 78.33 at the South Asian Games. Arshad, who in 2016 also won bronze medals at the South Asian Games and the Asian Junior Athletics Championships was under training in Mauritius. The gold was won by Qatar’s Ahmed Bader Magour with a throw of 83.45 metres whereas Uzbekistan’s Ivan Zaytsev won the silver with a 78.66-metre throw.
Basketball: Both the basketball teams of Men and Women suffered the most each with losing all four games. The men’s team have lostto Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan the hosts. The women’s team having had a more dismal performance has been consecutively suffered defeats from Turkey, Palestine, Indonesia and Syria.
Tennis – Women: The women could not keep up to Men’s team performance and lost all the matches as follows:
- Women’s singles second-round match: Sarah Mahboob lost to Turkey’s Berfu Cengiz 6-0, 6-0.
- Women’s doubles quarter-finals: Sara Mansoor and Meheq Khokhar lost to Malaysia’s Jawairiah Noordin and Theiviya Selva-Rajoo 6-4, 6-0.
Volleyball: The volleyball team won against Turkmenistan to end their Group ‘A’ campaign on a high note. Aimal Khan and Murad Jehan with 24 and 22 points respectively contribute towards the 3-1 win. The game wise score was 25-22, 25-22, 24-26, 25-21. Pakistan finished third in their group.
Wrestlers: All four wrestling competitions were lost as follows:.
- Mohammad Bilal was defeated on technical superiority by Turkey’s Nebi Uzun in the 57kg freestyle quarter-finals.
- Mudassar Hussain lost to Guinea-Bissau’s Bunde Cumba by fall in their 65kg freestyle last-16 clash.
- Mohammad Asad Butt was defeated by Turkey’s Soner Demirtas in the 74kg freestyle last-16 round.
- Umair Tariq badly lost to Iran’s Amir Mohammadi in their 97kg freestyle quarter-final.
Islamic Solidarity Games: Pakistan’s performance round-up till 17th May
