LAHORE- Pakistan martial arts star Syed Maratab Ali put Pakistan on the medal tables, after claiming bronze medal in the wushu men’s sanda -70kg event of the 17th Asian Games 2014, in Incheon, South Korea.
Maratab earned medal after losing his semi-final clash against China’s Kun Zhang. Both the players failed to score any point but Kun Zhang was awarded technical victory to book berth in the event’s final. The Pakistani had defeated Kyrgyzstan's Nurlanbek Mamataliev 2-0 to make it to the semis.
JAPAN TEACH BASEBALL LESSON TO PAKISTAN: In baseball event of the Games, Japan proved too hot for Pakistan as they outclassed the green shirts by 9-1. Pakistan will now take on Mongolia today (Wednesday) and the next day, they clash China in their last group outing. After the round robin league, which concludes on September 25, the semifinals will be played on September 27 and playoff for the bronze medal and final will be staged on September 28.
POOR FINISH OF PAKISTANIS IN SHOOTING: In 10m air rifle men’s qualification shooting, Zeeshan-ul-Fareed scored 611.7 points to finish 38 while Siddique Umar earned 608.2 points to finish 43 out of 53 contestants. All the top three positions went to China as Yifei Cao made new Games’ record with 630.7 points to top the qualification. He bettered the previous record of compatriot Tianyou Liu of 598 points which she made during the Doha Asian Games in 2006. In 25m rapid fire pistol men’s qualification - stage I, Pakistan’s Ghulam Mustafa Shabeer scored 280 points to finish 17th among 24 contestants.
PAKISTAN SQUASH TEAM OFF TO FLYING START: Asian Games team squash event defending champions Pakistan started their title defense in great style, as they brushed aside Qatar 3-0 in the first match of Group-A played on Tuesday. Pakistan will take on hosts Korea in the second match today (Wednesday). Danish Atlas took on Al Ishhaq Al Tamimi in the first encounter of the day. Danish wasted very little time to win the first game 11-3, won the second 11-2 and took the third game without conceding a single point 11-0 to give Pakistan 1-0 lead in only 18 minutes.
Pakistan No 1 male squash player Nasir Iqbal played the second match against Al Tamimi. Nasir played superbly and registered a convincing 3-0 victory in only 28 minutes. Nasir took the first game 11-3 and won the second 11-3. Tamimi did show some resistance in the third game before going down 11-7. In the third and dead rubber, Farhan Zaman thrashed Sadam Mehawesh 3-0 in 21 minutes. Farhan won the match 11-8, 11-2, 11-8.
JAPAN THRASH PAKISTAN 3-0 IN VOLLEYBALL: In volleyball event, Japan edged out Pakistan in straight sets 3-0 in one hour and 16 minutes. Pakistan lost all the three sets with same margins of 25-23. Both the team’s captains were in top form as Yu Koshikawa of Japan scored 20 points while Pakistan’s skipper Naseer Ahmad scored 19 points. M Ismail Khan also scored 11 points for Pakistan which was third highest in the game. Pakistan were unlucky to beat Japan despite going close to the victory as they lost all the three games just for the two points margin.
INDIA SET HOCKEY CLASH AGAINST PAKISTAN: India set Asian Games field hockey clash against Pakistan after thrashing Oman 7-0 on Tuesday as South Korea nudged ahead of Japan in the race for the semi-finals. Pakistan hockey team manager Shahnaz Sheikh was very hopeful of his boys’ performance against the arch-rivals India. He said: “The boys are in good form and I hope they will play out their best against arch-rivals India to move ahead towards winning Asian Games hockey title.”
PAKISTAN TAKE ON THAILAND IN WOMEN’S CRICKET QF: In Asian Games women’s cricket, Pakistan will face Thailand in the quarterfinals. Both Pakistan and Bangladesh women cricket teams qualified for the Games quarterfinals directly.