WAPDA continue athletics supremacy

Team wins 11 of 14 events on opening day of national championship.

KARACHI: Wapda dominated the opening day of the 45th National Athletics Championships, winning 11 of the 14 events contested, while the other three competitions were won by Army at the Jinnah Stadium in Islamabad yesterday.

Olympian Liaqat Ali of Army starred in the 100m sprint, clocking 10.65s and bagging gold, while teammate Mohammad Imran came second with 10.80s. Wapda’s Hafiz Sardar claimed bronze with 10.94s.

In the women’s 100m event, Wapda’s Najma Parveen won the gold followed by Punjab’s Sahibe Asra and HEC’s Sehrish Asghar.

Elsewhere, Olympian Rabia Ashiq of Wapda won the 800m race by clocking 2:27.21. Teammate Samavia finished second followed by HEC’s Farah Batool in third.

Another national star from Wapda, Zeenat Parveen clinched top position in the shot-put event with a distance of 13.32m, while her colleague Madiha Latif claimed second position with a try of 13.15m and Army’s Atiya Asghar took third place.

The 10,000m event also saw Wapda dominate as Shabana Kausar registered a win, while HEC’s Farah settled for second. Another Wapda athlete, Nasreen Akhtar, finished third.

Meanwhile, Wapda’s Hafiz Imtiaz won the men’s shot-put competition. The 5000m men’s event was won by Abdul Samad of Wapda with a time of 16:01.45.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2013.