Special Olympics Day four: Pakistan bag gold, silver medals

Athletes win in bocce, swimming, shotput events.

KARACHI:

Pakistan’s medal count increased on the fourth day of the Special Olympics Summer Games 2011 when Shumail Rubab bagged a gold at the women’s singles bocce event, Husnain Abbas Zaidi secured silver in the men’s 25-metre backstroke competition and Tahir Siddique ended as runner-up in the shotput event.

Rubab won gold when she outplayed eight other athletes and finished ahead of Mexico’s Maria Jose Arce at the Games underway in Athens, Greece. Zaidi, who took 23.09 seconds to cover 25 metres, lost the first place to Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah AlShahrani. The hosts’ Konstantinos Garofalakis claimed bronze after he finished third.

In the shotput event, 17-year-old Siddique outplayed six other athletes in the four-kilogram shotput and recorded a distance of 7.45 metres. He lost the first place to South Africa’s Steven Gumede.

Meanwhile, Shaullah Asad will compete in the 50-metre freestyle event while Pakistan’s torch-bearer Farah Vohra has also qualified for the 25-metre freestyle event when she claimed first place in the preliminaries yesterday.

“The swimmers are very excited now,” Pakistan swimming coach Veena Masud told The Express Tribune. “After the cyclists, it’s the swimmers’ turn to win some medals.”

The women’s basketball team also recorded a 19-4 win against UAE while the Pakistan football team tasted defeat against Germany 2-1 and languishes at the bottom of the group.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2011.