Asian Beach Games: Jiu-jitsu athletes add two more medals

Pakistan on six overall so far; face India today in kabaddi final

KARACHI: Pakistan jiu-jitsu athletes bagged two more medals on day two of the Asian Beach Games events, while the country also set up a final with India in the kabaddi competition yesterday in Da Nang, Vietnam.

Jahanzaib Rashad bagged a silver medal for Pakistan in the -56kg category of jiu-jitsu’s newaza event after losing to Mongolia’s Erdenebaatar Ulziitogtokh in the final.

Earlier, Ahmed Butt had won silver in the 96kg newaza event.

Meanwhile, Pakistan women continued to impress as they managed to get a third bronze medal through Beenish Khan, who defeated Lebanon’s Chammas Karen in the -70kg newaza event. Pakistan now have a total of six medals in jiu-jitsu with two silvers and four bronze medals, with one event still to go.

“We were aiming for gold, but we’ve been unlucky this time,” a team official told The Express Tribune from Da Nang. “We’re happy that our athletes gave their best, but we really feel that the judging of the duo system has been biased. We’ll be registering this complaint with the respective Asian federations so that this kind of bias doesn’t affect us in future.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan defeated Korea 35-31 in the kabaddi semi-final, while India outplayed Sri Lanka 49-26. The arch-rivals, who had earlier drawn 31-31 in their pool match, will play the final today.

In handball, Pakistan won their second match 2-1 against Bahrain and will be facing Thailand in their next group match.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2016.

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