Wapda clinched the 43rd National Athletics Championship outclassing tough rivals Army at the Punjab Stadium. While Wapda stood first on the podium with an overall 698 points, Army, with 432, remained runners-up and were followed by Navy (103) who finished third. Among the provinces, Punjab were the leaders with 88 points while Sindh earned 27 points.
Wapda’s dominance in the track and field events was due to the efforts of their female athletes who won 19 of the 24 gold, 14 out of 23 silver and four out of 11 bronze medals while Army finished with 14 gold, 12 silver and nine bronze.
Punjab won nine bronze medals and remained barren in gold and silver. Balochistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Fata and Pakistan Steel did not even get close to the winning podium.
As many as 13 finales were contested on the final day with Wapda claiming eight gold medals in 1500 metre (m), 400m, 4x400m Relay through Farhan Ahmed, Asad Iqbal, Hussain Saeed, Ali Asad. Wapda also clinched the women’s 400m, 4x100m, 5000m 4x400m Relay and Heptathlon through Najma Parveen, Tayyaba, Samreen, Wajiha, Mariam, Rabia Ashiq, Muzammil, Alia and Nasreen Akhtar. Army enjoyed dominance in High Jump, Triple Jump, 4x100m Relay, 3000m Steeple Chase through Maqsood Ahmed, Zafar Iqbal, Liaqat, Khalil, Saghir, Imran and Muhammad Nawaz.
Earlier, Wapda added four golds on day two while Army stood first in three events.
Maryum Babar won gold for Wapda in long jump, Ali Mohammad in 800m Relay. Muzzamil Ilyas clinched the women 400m hurdles and Sumera Tayyaba finished first in the 200m sprint. Army won their limelight in 200m, 400m hurdles and Long Jump through Liaqat Ali, Nokar Hussain and Muhammad Riaz respectively.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 22nd, 2011.
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