Wapda end 18-year wait to claim football gold

ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: Wapda lifted the National Games football title after 18 years when they defeated Pakistan Air Force (Paf) 1-0 in Islamabad. Arif Mehmood scored the winning goal in the 62nd minute.

This is Wapda’s second football triumph after they were also crowned the Pakistan Premier League (PPL) champions. Their last victory at the National Games came in 1992 under the late coach Muhammad Aslam Japani.

In the third place playoff, Pakistan Navy defeated Pakistan Army on penalty kicks 4-2 to claim the bronze medal.

Hockey

Shafqat Rasool’s brace helped Punjab defeat Wapda 3-2. Wapda took an early lead in the fourth minute through Asif Michael’s goal which was equalised by Tauseeq Arshad in the 16th minute. Punjab then took the lead with Rasool’s goal in the 22nd minute.

Sohail Abbas levelled the score a minute later. But Rasool fired his second goal in the final minute to seal victory for Punjab.

Meanwhile, Army crushed Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) 3-0 and Navy drew against Paf 1-1.

Squash

K-P and Wapda qualified for the final of the squash team event after both won their respective semi-finals.

Earlier, four matches were played in which K-P beat Paf, Wapda defeated Higher Education Commission (Hec), Punjab beat Balochistan and Army clinched a win against Sindh. Farhan Zaman Khan of Paf earned a walk-over against K-P’s Waqar Mahboob, while Aamir Atlas of Wapda beat Aqib Haneef 11-9, 6-11, 13-11 and 11-7. Farhan Mahboob of Wapda defeated Sheikh Saqib of Hec by 11-7, 11-7, and 11-5.

Athletics

Army bagged 11 gold, nine silver and three bronze medals while Wapda secured eight gold, five silver and nine bronze medals in the men’s events. Similarly, Wapda looked too tough for their opponents in the women’s events as they topped the competitions with 478 points.

Judo

Wapda showed their supremacy in the men’s Judo event when they won three gold medals out of five. Army and Railways claimed one gold each. ( With  additional reporting by Natasha Raheel )

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2010.