India dominate opening day

Pakistan clinch one gold medal in Asian judo championship.

KARACHI:

Indian athletes dictated terms on the first day of the South Asian Judo Championship 2011 in Islamabad when they lifted eight gold medals in different categories, while Pakistan managed only one gold.

The women’s championship saw the Indians clean sweeping all the three events that were held, with Anita Chawla bagging the gold medal in the under-51kilogramme (kg) category, while Garima Chaudhry secured the gold in the 63kg competition. Jina De clinched the women’s championship in the 70kg event.

In the men’s event India again dominated securing four gold medals in the 73, 90, 100 and over-100kg events, while Pakistan’s Mohammad Azhar won the under-81kg category. Naeem Butt and Pervaiz Khan bagged the silver medals in the 90kg and 100kg events respectively.

The competition is witnessing action from 42 athletes from six countries participating across 13 events.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2011.