Maratib delivers on his word, wins bronze

Wushu the source of first medal, squash team also victorious.


Nabil Tahir/natasha Raheel September 23, 2014

KARACHI:


Syed Maratib Ali Shah won the country’s first medal of the 2014 Asian Games and has rejuvenated the spirits of the entire Pakistan contingent, despite losing in the semi-finals of the wushu event in Incheon on Tuesday.


Maratib reached the semi-finals of the -70kg category and then won the bronze medal in the Sanda competition for men.

Maratib was the event’s surprise package as he made it to the semis after defeating Kyrgyzstan’s Nurlanbek Mamataliev 2-0 in the quarter-finals on Monday.



However, he lost to China’s Kun Zhang in the semis and had to settle for third place, adding to the bronze that he won in the 2006 Asian Games in Doha.

According to Pakistan Wushu Federation President Iftikhar Malik, who is also Maratib’s personal coach, the athlete was confident that he could raise Pakistan’s flag at the end of the competition, and the 32-year-old proved good on his promise of bringing home at least one medal.

“We’ve always won a medal at the Games,” Malik told The Express Tribune from Incheon. “Maratib is also my student so I’m extremely proud of him.”

Malik added that Pakistan athletes only had a month’s training before the Games. For comparison, athletes from India spent three months in China to prepare for the event.

“We have potential and this shouldn’t have been a surprise for anyone,” said Malik. “We were also hoping that Abdullah Khan would win a medal in the -60 kg event, but he lost by a point.”

Despite the semi-final loss, Malik was full of praise for the bronze-medallist. “Maratib’s competitor in the semi-final was a better fighter, but we are still proud of him for getting Pakistan its first medal here.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan Sports Board Director and Asiad contingent head Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera said that wushu has always been a source of pride for the nation. “We knew that at least one medal would come from wushu,” he said. “The medal has made a difference to the morale of the entire contingent. All the athletes are more upbeat now and they want to do better.”

Squash

Pakistan began their title defence of the squash men’s team event in style, defeating Qatar 3-0, as Danish Atlas, Nasir Iqbal and Farhan Zaman all won without losing a single set.

“We are expecting gold from squash,” said Ganjera. “Squash and hockey, along with boxing, are the sports that can give us more medals.”

The squash team will now play South Korea today in the second Pool A match.

Swimming

Pakistani swimmers flopped once again as Areeba Sheikh finished 14th out of a total of 18 swimmers, with a time of 35.06 seconds in the women’s 50m backstroke event, 7.42 seconds behind China’s Yuanhui Fu, who finished first.

Meanwhile, Soha Sanjrani did not compete in the women’s 100m butterfly event.

Muhammad Saad finished 30th out of 42 swimmers in the 50m men’s freestyle category, finishing 4.26 seconds behind the winner, China’s Zetao Ning, who completed the race in 21.94 seconds.

Volleyball

The Pakistan men’s volleyball team lost 3-0 to Japan, losing all three sets 23-25 in one hour and 16 minutes. Captain Naseer Ahmed high-scored for Pakistan with 19 points, while Japan captain Yu Koshikawa scored 20.

Shooting

Pakistan shooters also disappointed as Zeeshanul Farid finished 38th and Siddique Umar 43rd, out of 53 shooters, in the 10m air rifle men’s qualification round, with 611.7 and 608.2 points respectively.

Meanwhile, Ghulam Mustafa Bashir finished 17th out of 24 contenders with 280 points in stage 1 of the 25m rapid fire pistol men’s qualification round, whereas stage 2 will be held on September 24.

Boxing

Muhammad Waseem received a ‘bye’ in the first round of the 52kg event, while Muhammad Nadir and Ahmad Ali will compete in the 56kg and 60kg events on Wednesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24th, 2014.

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