Taekwondo adds to Pakistan’s Asiad woes

PTF president hails impressive effort by female athletes.

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Ghanzanfar Ali missed out on the chance to bag the bronze medal after losing the quarter-final to South Korea’s Taehun Kim 13-1 at the -54kg taekwondo men’s event at the Ganghwa Dolmens Gymnasium on Friday.

Ghazanfar had performed well in the matches leading up to the qualifiers when he defeated Philippines’ John Paul Lizardo 14-12, but failed to impress in the quarter-final, losing to Kim without any significant resistance.



Meanwhile, in the women’s taekwondo event, Najia Rasool impressed on her debut at the Asian Games but was unable to stop Brunei Darusalam’s Nurulain binte Muhammad Jaafar’s attack as she lost 3-2 in the round of 16 of the -73kg event.

“I’m very happy with our female athletes Najia and Asia Batool,” Pakistan Taekwondo Federation (PTF) President Wasim Ahmed told The Express Tribune. “I want to encourage women, especially because it was the first time in the history of our country that they competed at the Asian Games’ taekwondo event.

“Najia was extremely impressive, although she lost the fight but the margin was very small. Given that these athletes only prepared for the Games just a month before their events, it’s a good performance from both the men and women.”

The squad also included Arsalan Asad Khan in the -63kg competition and Atief Arshad Archibald in the -80 kg event.

“They all competed but it’s also about the luck and the draws. Our draws were tough,” Ahmed added.

Ahmed felt the accomplishments of the athletes are all the more commendable due to their lack of preparation and the level of the opponents they faced. “We are proud of them because Asian Games are the biggest event in taekwondo, after the Olympics, and countries like Iran, China, Chinese Taipei are fielding Olympians in the Games,” he said. “Our athletes competed internationally after two years.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s karatekas also failed to win their matches as Muhammad Kashif lost to Philippines’ Ramon Antonino Franco 9-1 in the -55kg men’s competition, while Kulsoom Hazara also lost to Iran’s Pegah Zangenehkarkooti 1-0 in the -68 kg event.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2014.

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