Khatoone Pakistan’s Ayesha covered the distance of four kilometres in just eight minutes and six seconds as she left 11 other competitors behind in the professional category. PHOTO: FILE
Khatoone Pakistan’s Ayesha covered the distance of four kilometres in just eight minutes and six seconds as she left 11 other competitors behind in the professional category.
Filza Ilyas secured second position after clocking 10 minutes and two seconds, while Zainab finished third by covering the distance in 11 minutes and 44 seconds.
The race was supported by the Karachi Youth Initiative, Korangi’s business community KATI and Deputy Commissioner Korangi Zubair Chana.
The pre-qualifying round for the event featured 135 cyclists on Saturday at Seaview, while the top 24 competed in the main event on Sunday.
In the amateurs’ category, Nasra School’s Sana Yaqoob won the title, while Ayesha Sana came second and Government Primary Girls School Korangi’s Alina Raees secured the third spot. The winners received Rs10,000 as prize money while runners-up bagged Rs5,000 each.
Meanwhile, the Sindh Cycling Association (SCA) women-wing President Sana Ali said that the aim of the championship was to promote cycling among female athletes from schools and colleges.
“We wanted to take out the talent from Korangi especially,” Sana told The Express Tribune.
“Our aim is to promote cycling at the grassroots level. We even had players coming from schools. We organised a separate amateur race for them so that they could experience the sport.”
She said that the college athletes also included those who aspired to become professional cyclists.
“Just to be fair we stopped two university students from participating,” said Sana. “We wanted to target the new talent and not the ones who have already competed in other national events. This event was meant for the girls who had never competed professionally at any level.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 2nd, 2014.
Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ