Wapda delight in national athletics

KARACHI: Wapda continued to dominate the 42nd National Athletics Championship, winning a total of six gold medals while being followed closely by Pakistan Army with four golds.

Wapda’s Farhan Ahmed won the 800-metre race in one minute and 54.46 seconds and also bagged a gold in the long jump event, covering a distance of 7.5 metres.

In the men’s 400-metre hurdle, Army’s Haq Nawaz bagged the gold medal after finishing in 53.22 seconds followed by Nazakat Ali of Wapda (54.94) and Bilal Maqsood (55.34).

Army clinched the 400-metre sprint as well as Sheda Younus recorded 49.29 seconds to stand in first place, barely beating Pakistan Air Force athlete Mohammad Kamran by 0.01 seconds. Wapda’s Saeed Ahmed (49.88) finished in third place.

Two national records were also broken by Army’s Adnan Anjum and Wapda’s Maryam Babar in the pole vault and triple jump event.

Anjum leapt 4.91 metres and was followed by teammate Mohammad Jabbar (4.7) and Wapda’s Mohammad Ismal (4.2) metres. On the other hand, Babar (11.64 metre) stood first in the triple jump event.

In other events Army’s Mohamad Waseem covered 16.51 metres to finish first in the shot-cut competition while Mohammad Nawaz bagged gold for the Army team as well after finishing the 3,000 metre Steeple Chase in 9.26 seconds.  One of the few delights for the Pakistan Air Force squad was the 110-metre men’s hurdles race as Mohsin Ali’s clocked in 14.40 seconds to claim the first gold for his team.

Published in The Express Tribune July 8^th, 2010.