Football team eliminated, Asiad failures continue

Pakistan’s representatives in other sports fare no better.

KARACHI:

The Pakistan football team was eliminated from the Asian Games after losing 1-0 to China in a do-or-die match at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon on Monday.

Pakistan fell behind when China’s Feiya Chang fired home from close range in the 20th minute of the match. The green shirts then failed to equalise despite fighting tooth and nail.

Both teams were playing to stay in the tournament in the final Group F match that featured three countries.

North Korea had earlier confirmed their place in the Round of 16 with 3-0 and 2-0 wins over China and Pakistan respectively.

Pakistan Football Federation Secretary Ahmed Yar Khan Lodhi said that despite the exit, he was satisfied with the team’s performance. “We have to give credit to the team for showing spirit in Incheon,” Lodhi told The Express Tribune. “They tried their best. North Korea was a superior side, so containing them to only two goals shows improvement.”



Lodhi also justified the team’s performance against China. “Against China, they did feel the pressure towards the end. But overall, the team’s performance was satisfactory.”

The Pakistan team had been preparing for the Asian Games since August, playing a friendly two-match series against India, who were also eliminated, and touring Bahrain.

Wushu

One of the major discoveries for Pakistan in Asiad was Abdullah Khan in the -60kg wushu event.

The 20-year-old reached the quarter-finals of the Sanda discipline in wushu competitions but lost to India’s Narender Grewal 2-0 at the Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium on Monday.

Meanwhile, Syed Maratib Ali Shah reached the semi-finals of the -70kg event after defeating Kyrgysztan’s Nurlanbek Mataliev 2-0.

Judo

The 2014 Commonwealth silver-medallist Shah Hussain Shah concluded the -100kg judo competition in fifth position.

The Tokyo-based athlete comfortably won his first fight against Afghanistan’s Mohd Tawfiq Bakshi 100-0, but lost to Kazakhstan’s Maxim Rakov 100-0 in two minutes and 20 seconds in the quarter-final.

Hussain was allowed to play two repechage matches, as he failed to meet the qualifying standards by a small margin.

Acording to Pakistan Judo Federation Secretary Masood Ahmed, Hussain defeated Turkemanistan’s Nuraly Yalkapov in the first match in four minutes and 34 seconds.

However, he lost to Uzbekistan’s Ramziddin Sayidov in the second and was therefore out of the running for the bronze.

Cycling

Pakistan cyclists also made a poor start to the Asian Games. Twenty-five-year-old Muhammad Shakeel finished last out of 21 cyclists in the men’s sprint qualifying round, completing the 200m in 12.807 seconds at an average speed of 56.219km/h.

Shooting

Pakistan’s two female shooters — 36-year-old Nadira Raees and 19-year-old Minahil Sohail — finished 53rd and 22nd out of a total of 54 contenders respectively in the 10m Air Rifle Women’s qualification round, earning 390.7 and 412.2 points respectively.

Swimming

The swimmers fared little better as Areeba Sheikh finished 14th out of 21 swimmers, with a time of 31.52 seconds in the women’s 50m butterfly event. Sheikh was 5.06 seconds behind China’s Lan Liu who finished first, while Simrah Nasir did not compete.

In the Women’s 100m free style event, Sheikh finished 30th out of 35 contenders with a time of one minute six seconds, while Soha Sanjrani did not compete.

Whereas, in the men’s 50m backstroke event, Muhammad Asif finished second to last with 31.49 seconds, 6.45 seconds behind the leader. In the men’s 200m individual medley, Nisar Ahmed did not compete.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2014.

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