Faiza, Naheen clinch badminton doubles gold

Shuttlers Faiza Nasir and Naheen Khan improved Pakistan's medal count on Friday when they clinched the gold medal in the unified women's doubles event at the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin.

Playing at the Messe Berlin, the duo won the most points in the Women’s United Doubles 03. They outclassed Uzbekistan 21-5, 21-17, Kyrgyz Republic 21-12, 21-13, and Malayasia 21-14, 21-6 in their fixtures.

They won 126 games in total and only lost 67 to be ranked at the top of the division.

“We are happy that our hard work has paid off and we won the gold medal for our country,” Faiza and Naheen were quoted as saying in the press release issued by Special Olympics Pakistan (SOP).

“Our coaches have played a huge part in our success; they have done the all-important work on us.”

Encouraged by their results, they vowed to improve further. “We will try our best to carry on with our winning streak in the future.”

Their coaches Mutahir Sohail and Qamar Ali Mona were proud of the Lahore-based athletes. They added that the results were morale-boosting because both Faiza and Naheen had been training to participate in the Games for two years.

They were also part of the training camps that the SOP held in Karachi and Islamabad to prepare the athletes for the Berlin event.

Shuttlers Noshiwan Arif Raja and Talha Asif also made their contribution to Pakistan’s success with a silver medal in the Men’s Unified Sports Doubles event.

They were placed in division 03. They won two out of their three matches in the competition to grab the silver medal. The duo defeated Paraguay 21-18, 21-12 and outplayed Macau 21-12, 21-16 but lost to Hong Kong 21-16, 21-18 after a thrilling match.

The SOP is fielding 87 athletes in 11 sports disciplines. There are 33 women and 54 men who are representing the country in different competitions, eager to win accolades for Pakistan.

So far, the country has won seven gold, seven silver, and six bronze medals.