Zeenat grabs a shot put bronze

Pakistan win first medal in Asian Grand Prix.

KARACHI:

Zeenat Parveen won bronze in the shot put during the second leg of the Asian Grand Prix in Kanchanaburi, Thailand yesterday, giving Pakistan its first medal in the three-leg competition.

Parveen bettered her previous throw of 13.62m with a 13.93m yesterday to finish third.

“Winning a bronze medal in Asia is the biggest achievement of my life,” Parveen told The Express Tribune. “I narrowly missed out on a medal in the opening meet but I was adamant that I’ll leave the venue with a medal this time round.”

Parveen is now eyeing a silver or a gold in the final leg on Monday, hoping for a repeat of her national record that stands at 14.57m.

Meanwhile, Rabia Ashiq showed tremendous improvement in the 800m but failed to end up in the medals despite a personal best of 2:10:65.

“In these two rounds, I’ve set my personal best which really matters to me because this shows my game has improved a lot and all the hard work is paying off now,” said Rabia who blamed the change of tracks from what she was used to training on in Pakistan as a factor in the improvement.

Rabia has now set her sights of breaking Pakistan’s record of 2:08:65 which was set by Bushra Parveen, who is Rabia’s coach. Meanwhile, Liaquat Ali remained the country’s biggest disappointment once again as he finished the 100m in fifth with a time of 10.7 seconds.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2012.