Last Pakistani exits Rio Games

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Olympic adventures came to an end yesterday when athlete Najma Parveen, the country’s final representative at the Games in Rio, exited the tournament after finishing 70th overall in the women’s 200m race.

A total of nine heats took place and the 22-year-old finished last in the sixth heat with a time of 26.11sec, the third lowest from among the 72 athletes that participated in the heats. The top 24 athletes from all heats qualified for the semi-final, which will be held in three rounds.



This event capped a disappointing Olympic campaign for Pakistan: none of its athletes managed to get past the qualification round.

Shooter Minhal Sohail finished 28th in the qualification round for the women’s 10m air rifle event, while Haris Bandey came last in the men’s 400m freestyle heats to exit the tournament. Judoka Shah Hussain Shah, who got a bye in the round of 64, crashed out of the first round he participated in; losing to Ukraine’s Artem Bloshenko in the round of 32.



In the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event, Ghulam Mustafa Bashir finished 18th, while on the same day Lianna Swan, in the women’s 50m freestyle heats, and Mehboob Ali, in the first round of the men’s 400m race, also crashed out.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2016.