Ambreen adds to her medal collection

Wrestler wins another bronze at Asian Indoor Games

KARACHI: Pakistan's Ambreen Masih bagged another medal at the Asian Indoor Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on Wednesday.

She had earlier bagged a bronze medal in the traditional -58kg event, while her latest bronze came in the women's classic style -55kg event, where she reached the semi-finals before losing to Kyrgyzstan's Meerim Mizimidin 4-1.

Ambreen, the first Pakistani woman to win a medal at a wrestling event, feels had the refereeing been fair she would not have fallen short by one point and could've even made the final.

"It was a tough competition," Ambreen told The Express tribune. "It wasn't easy because this is an Asian competition and also the refereeing isn't very fair and clearly there were biases involved. However, I'm not complaining as it is a huge thing for us to even be here. I'm just grateful to God and my father for allowing me and my sister to take part in full-body contact sports."

Ambreen reminded that her success came despite limited resources and the brief nature of her training camp.

She also went on to laud the performances of her teammates, who have so far bagged six medals among themselves.

On Wednesday, Beenish Khan also claimed her second bronze medal in the -70kg belt wrestling event, Ambreen's sibling Humaira Ashiq won bronze in -50kg classic event, whereas Maryam had taken a medal in the -50kg freestyle competition a day earlier.

"It is such a great feeling, we are just four women wrestlers in the squad, but we've got more medals than the boys. That is something special as it means we have the potential. We are still looking for a gold medal though and need to win one because we all still have one more event left," said Ambreen.

However, she complained that there is a lack of support for women's wrestling in Pakistan and that the government does not take much interest in their sport.

"There is a lack of awareness and it seems people don't care, which hurts," said Ambreen. "But we will continue to strive."

Meanwhile, in the men's competition, wrestler Muhammad Safdar won a bronze medal in the men's classic style -65 kg event, Jahanzeb Rashid Lone got the same in the -65 ju-jitsu Ne-waza event and Muhammad Basit also emulated the same feat.

Pakistan's total medal tally currently stands at 16, with one gold medal, two silvers and 13 bronze medals — good enough for 14^th place in the 28-nation Games.