Pakistan’s hockey and kabaddi teams continued their impressive starts at the Asian Games on Tuesday, while the country’s fencers, soft tennis and table tennis players endured a difficult day and the boxing campaign got off to a losing start.
Pakistan made it two wins from two in Pool B hockey, downing Uzbekistan 5-1 at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium.
After a goalless first quarter, Mohammad Ammad opened the scoring in the 18th minute, only for Uzbekistan to shock the national side with an equaliser right on the stroke of half-time, Shokhrukhbek Salimjonov converting a penalty corner in the 30th minute.
The goal jolted Pakistan into action.
Three minutes after the restart, Sufyan Khan restored the lead from a penalty corner — his third goal in two matches — before Abdul Rehman doubled the advantage in the 40th minute from another corner.
Abu Mahmood put the result beyond doubt with a penalty, and Sufyan added gloss in the 57th minute with his second of the match.
Pakistan, who opened their campaign with a 9-0 rout of Thailand on Sunday, next face China, who beat Thailand 8-1, on Thursday.
The kabaddi team also secured their second win of the competition, beating Nepal 58-43 in a Group B clash at the Tokai Citizen Gymnasium.
Led by captain Mudassar Ali, Pakistan built a comfortable 30-17 lead by half-time. Nepal fought back in a tighter second half, but the early deficit proved too much to overcome.
Pakistan’s defence forced six all-outs and their raiders claimed eight bonus points, with 44 outs recorded in total.
The win sets up a clash with Thailand on Wednesday.
Pakistan’s boxing campaign got off to a bad start as Sumama Rehman lost his 55kg preliminary bout against teenager Meroj Sufijonov of Tajikistan at the Nishio Gymnasium.
Sumama, 24, showed heart throughout the three-round bout but was out-struck by his 19-year-old opponent and was knocked down in the third round as he lost via a unanimous decision.
In fencing, Pakistan’s Baryal Khan and Mohammed Yaseen Khan lost all five of their bouts in the men’s foil individual at the Aichi Sky Expo Hall.
The 25-year-old Baryal fell to India’s Sachin 5-0, then lost to Jeonghyun Youn of South Korea 5-1. Defeats followed against Mongolia’s Chingis Narmandakh (5-2), Kazakhstan’s Galim Nurumov (5-1) and Chinese Taipei’s Chih-Chieh Chen (5-2).
Youngster Yaseen, 18, lost four of his five bouts 5-0, managing a single point in his only competitive encounter, a 5-1 defeat to Kazakhstan’s Timofey Semyonov.
Qatar’s Abdulrahman Poorgharib, South Korea’s Kwanghyun Lee, Oman’s Ahmed Keskes and China’s Zhaoran Zheng all handed him 5-0 defeats.
The soft tennis rot continued in the singles event on Tuesday, with Eraj Zaidi and Kainaat Shallwani each losing both of their matches 4-0 at the Nagoya City Higashiyama Park Tennis Centre.
In the men’s section, Mohammad Ali and Hussain Arain fared no better, losing all of their matches without winning a single game.
The losing trend continued in the table tennis event as the duo of Mohammad Khan and Kulsoom Khan lost their mixed doubles first-round match 3-0 against Nepal’s pair of Rubin Maharjan and Evana Thapa.
In equestrian, Pakistan’s Usman Khan dropped to 20th overall in the individual eventing competition after the show jumping phase on Tuesday, posting 44.70 penalty points on Eden du Veret, who is also known as Mirage.
The round included eight jumping penalties — the equivalent of two knocked rails — leaving the 45-year-old Usman, partnered with the Selle Francais gelding, with a combined total of 77.34 heading into Wednesday’s cross-country phase.
He had sat 19th after the dressage phase with 36.70 penalties (63.33 per cent), and now faces an uphill task to climb back up the standings.
At the Aichi Prefectural Martial Arts Hall, Pakistan’s Amin Ullah lost 2-0 against Vietnam’s Van Tam Dinh in the wushu men’s 56kg quarter-final bout.
Pakistan have won two medals at the Games so far, the national women’s cricket team and mixed martial artist Asim Khan securing bronze.
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