Junior athletics: Ubaidullah fastest in men’s 100-metre event

HEC top men’s medals table with the 4 golds in National Championship.

KARACHI:

Higher Education Commission (HEC) clinched the National Youth and Junior Athletics Championship after topping the table with four gold medals in the men’s junior events, while Punjab and Wapda tied for the second place with three golds each.

Fata came third with two gold medals as the championship concluded yesterday.

Army’s Ubaidullah emerged as the fastest male athlete when he won the 100-m sprint race in 10.93 seconds.

Following Ubaidullah in the 100-m event was Fata’s Samiullah in 11.20 seconds, whereas Punjab’s Asadur Rehman took bronze in 11.36 seconds. Samiullah went on to claim gold in the 200-m and 400-m sprints as well.

In other events, HEC’s Badar Tars won the gold medal in the 110-m hurdles competition, covering the distance in 15.67 seconds. His team-mate Hazran Khan bagged the gold medal in the shot put event with a throw of 13.35 metres and again took the top position in the discus throw, covering 35.32 metres. Similarly, Mohammad Nouman won the javelin throw event with a 54.77 metres throw.

Interestingly, the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) officials said the championship does not hold the best team award or the best athlete trophy since the main purpose of the championship was to encourage the youth and find talented players who can represent the country internationally.



“We have only distributed shields and the championship didn’t officially give out the best team awards for any of the four championships,” an AFP official told The Express Tribune. “However, four of these young athletes will be shortlisted for the South Asian Games this year and they will get a chance to represent the country internationally. For us it was more of a talent hunt.”

In the women’s junior championship, Punjab won eight gold medals with Shabe Asra taking the gold medal in four events — the 100-m, 200-m, 400-m and 800-m sprints.

Meanwhile, Wapda won three gold medals and Army women athletes took two.

Similarly in the under-16 category, Punjab dominated with five gold medals as Javeria Karim emerged as the best athletes wining 100-m and 200-m sprint races.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2013.