Butt claims Pakistan’s first weightlifting gold

Finishes with a total of 360 points in snatch and jerk events to bag top spot.

KARACHI: Teenager Mohammad Nooh Dastgir Butt claimed Pakistan’s first gold in weightlifting on the fourth day of the South Asian Games by winning the +105kg men’s event in Guwahati in India.

The 17-year-old amassed 160 points in the snatch category and 200 in the jerk to finish with a total score of 360 and secure Pakistan’s fifth gold in the regional event.

Meanwhile, Pakistani athletes also won five bronze medals — one each in wushu, cycling, volleyball, swimming and badminton — to take their total medal tally from 29 to 35, while tennis player Aisamul Haq Qureshi confirmed two semi-final appearances; the men’s singles event and the mixed doubles event with Ushna Sohail.



In the wushu taolu-daoshu and gunshu event, Mohammad Waleed Ajmal finished third with 15.35 points to claim bronze, while in the 100km individual road-race cycling event, Nisar Ahmed finished behind Sri Lanka’s Jeevan Pilippenge and India’s Pankaj Kumar to finish third and bag a bronze medal.

Pakistan men’s volleyball team won the third-place match 25-17, 25-19, 25-13 against Maldives to claim bronze, while they had to settle for yet another third-place finish in the men’s badminton team event as they lost 3-0 to India in the semi-final.

In swimming, Bisma Khan clocked 31.95sec to finish third in the 50m women’s backstroke event to bag a bronze medal, while compatriot Areeba Sheikh finished seventh in the same event.



Aisam, meanwhile, defeated Sri Lanka’s Harshna Godamanna 6-4, 7-6 in the quarter-final and will now face India’s Saketh Meyneni in the next match, while the tennis ace also paired up with Ushna to defeat Bangladesh 6-4, 6-4 in the mixed doubles quarter-finals.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th,  2016.

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.