ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's special Olympians manages to win as many as seven gold and three bronze medals in various events of the Special Olympic Games in Los Angles on Thursday.
Special Olympics Pakistan volunteer M Khalid Rehmani told The Nation and said: “Ahsan Anwar/M Arif Qayyum won tennis doubles title as they beat Venezuela pair Soleman/Eskander in straight sets 4-2, 4-0. The competitors were divided into four divisions on the basis of their ability and performance. Pakistani pair was placed in open 4th division having 12 players in this group, as per rules four type of ITF approved balls were used for different categories of ability. For division 4, green ITF approved balls were used. Olympian Arham first rooted out Al Ketbi Awadh of UAE 3-1, then Diouf Hamaou of Senegal 3-0 and finally, brushed aside Stojanovski David of Macedonia 3-0 to win gold. Diouf won silver and Stojanovski ended up with bronze.”
“Ruqia finished with bronze in the table tennis singles in division 2 encounters. She won against Wong Ying of China 3-0 and lost to Chan Suetying of Hong Kong 0-3 and lost to Wong Ting with same 0-3. It was great day for Jahanzaib Iqbal in badminton singles event as he won all his three matches in straight sets against his opponents from Germany and Isle of Man and finished with gold,” he added.
“Pakistani athletes also impressed with their performances as Ramail Irshad bagged gold in 200 meter race final with 29:26 timing in division 46 competition. Eight players were running in this division and Meziane Zahid of Algeria won silver with 29.30 timing and bronze went to Wong Khai Lunk,” Rehmani said and added: “Marvi Azhar earned bronze in 400 meters in division 3 run with timing of 01:25:16 while first and second position went to Zacarlas Sara and Chairies Witimle respectively.”
“Asim Zar finished on top in the division 14, final race of 100 meters swimming but his result was withheld due to technical reasons. The jury of the event decided in his favor and awarded him gold as his timing was 2.29.56. The other swimmer, who was also awarded gold in same race, was Lowe Jonathan of Jamaica with timing of 2.34.12,” he said.
“The cycling events were being played at Long beach, some two hours drive from city of Los Angles. Pakistani cyclists were too good for their opponents and in the time and trial event, Uzma Yousaf won gold in one kilometer run with 2:37:55 timing and Khadija Irfan finished with bronze in the same race with 2:57 minutes timings while silver went to Elhadi Saffa of Morocco as her timing was 2:45:76. “In other time & trial one kilo meters race, Sumble Yousuf finished 7th while Aqsa continued her impressive run and won gold in 50 meter backstroke in the division two swimming meet with timing of 1.40.09 while silver medal went to Relsey (USA) and bronze to Darling Gomez of Aruba,” he added.
“In basketball, Pakistan Special (traditional) team lost to Israel by 19-27 and Pakistan's unified team beat Luxemburg with 36-29. According to head coach SM Tanveer, basketball team missed many open opportunities of scoring points but they could not do so.
“The Special Olympics Pakistan chairperson congratulated all the medal winners and hoped that other special Olympians would also perform best to bring glories for themselves and country,” Rehmani concluded.