Commonwealth Games diary

Nooh Dastagir Butt creates history, while Shah Hussain ends medal drought

The Commonwealth Games 2022 started on July 28 and will continue till August 08 in Birmingham, England.

The event featured over 5,000 athletes competing in 19 different events with an aim to bring glory to their country.

Of these 5000+ sportspersons, 68 (25 women and 43 men) belong to Pakistan who represented the country in 12 events.

The contingent includes five athletics players (three men and two women), four shuttlers (two men and two women), five boxers (four men and a womn), 15 women cricketers, 18 men hockey players, one gymnast (male), two judokas (men), four squash players (two men and two women), four swimmers (a man and three women), a table tennis player (male), three weightlifters (male) and six wrestlers (male).

The major chunk of the event has been completed and Pakistan’s overall run has been fairly poor, apart from a few moments of brilliance here and there. So, let’s have a look at how Pakistan fared during their campaign thus far.

Weightlifting

Weightlifter Nooh Dastagir Butt created history to end Pakistan’s gold medal drought in Commonwealth Games 2022.

The 24-year-old competed in the +109kg category where he lifted 173kgs in snatch and 232kgs in clean and jerk, both Commonwealth Games records, to finish with a total of 405kgs.

The man, who hails from, Gujranwala made the Games history by lifting 173kgs in snatch in the third attempt and then he lifted 230kgs in clean and jerk to lead the table.

New Zealand’s David Andrew Liti challenged Butt and pushed him to the limit as he gradually tried to match him. Therefore, the Pakistani weightlifter had to make some crucial decisions and he decided to go all out, increasing the weight to 232kgs, which earned him the gold medal.

Butt previously won a bronze medal for the country in the 2018 Commonwealth Games and it upset his father, Ghulam Dastagir, who is also his personal coach.

Now, after achieving this incredible feat, he dedicated his gold medal to his father, who was not by his side when he made his way into the record books.

“I won this medal for my father and I still haven’t spoken to him yet,” said Butt on the morning after winning the first gold for Pakistan in the ongoing Games in Birmingham.

Wrestling

Pakistan wrestlers performed brilliantly in the Games, where Zaman Anwar and Inam Butt stormed into the final in their respective weight categories. Meanwhile, Inayatullah fell a little short and could not make it to the finals.

Anwar advanced the final of the event after beating England’s Mandir Kooner 5-0, where he confirmed at least a silver medal for the country.

Moreover, Butt showed a lot of courage and resilience as he came from a deficit to first equal the bout 3-3 against South Africa’s Edward Lessing and took the lead of 5-3 to win it and qualify to fight for the gold.

Meanwhile, Inayatullah lost to Canada’s Lachlan McNiel in the 65kg semi-final and he will to try to clinch the bronze.

Judo

Shah Hussain Shah, the son of Pakistan’s only Olympics medalist boxer Hussain Shah, helped the country in winning their first medal in the Commonwealth Games this year.

Shah Hussain clinched the bronze medal after beating South Africa’s Thomas-Laszlo Breytenbach convincingly 10-0 in two minutes and 51 seconds in the -90kg category.

The 29-year-old had lost the hope to win a gold medal for his country after losing to Australia’s Harrison Cassar in the quarterfinal.

However, he then qualified for the repechage fight, where he got a bye and advanced to compete for a podium finish.

It was not the first Commonwealth Games medal for Shah Hussain as he claimed the silver medal in the 2014 edition of the event.

Javelin throw

Pakistan’s star athlete Arshad Nadeem directly qualified for the finals of the javelin throw event as the organisers waived the qualifying round due to a small number of entrants. The final of the event will take place on August 7.

Nadeem, who grabbed the fifth spot in the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, recently with a massive throw of 86.16m, has been battling an elbow and knee injury.

Even before the commencement of the event, Nadeem was rated as one of the brightest hopes for a medal for Pakistan.

The 25-year-old is competing in the event with a longstanding elbow injury and a soft tissue trauma in his knee. The injuries may hinder Pakistan’s hope for another medal.

“It depends on the day, how he is doing and if the pain is relieved, but he can bag a medal. He has all the potential and if he was a 100 per cent fit, he would be at the top. I am working with him each day, bracing, taping him, doing his physiotherapy, so far he is 80 to 85 per cent better than before,” said Pakistan Olympic Association medical committee member Dr Asad Abbas while talking to The Express Tribune.

Sprint

Meanwhile, Shajar Abbas qualified for the semi-finals of the 200m men’s event, which is quite an achievement in itself.

The 22-year-old was placed in heat 2 alongside Udodi Onwuzurike of Nigeria, who won the gold medal in last year’s World U20 athletics championship.

The Pakistani sprinter completed the distance in merely 21.12 seconds, beating the young athletics champion, who clocked 21.18 seconds.

Earlier, Abbas equalled his national record when he narrowly missed out on a place in the 100m event. He ended up at the fourth spot as he completed the race in 10.38.

Swimming

Pakistan swimmers could not stay afloat in the event and knocked out in the early stages of the Games.

In the women’s event, first and foremost, Bisma Khan represented the country in four categories. In the 50m freestyle, she clocked 27.82 seconds to take the 38th spot.

In the 100m freestyle race, she stood 47th with a timing of 1:02.59, which was followed by 33rd and 31st position in 50m and 100m butterfly, respectively.

Jehanara Nabi competed in three swimming events, including 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle. She ended up in the 40th, 22nd and 17th position in the three events, respectively.

Mishael Ayub also failed to make a mark with 31st, 26th and 46th spot in 50m, 100m breaststroke and 50m butterfly, respectively.

In the men’s category, Haseeb Tariq participated in 50m freestyle, 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly, where he ended up at 43rd, 31st and 35th rank, respectively.

Badminton

Four Pakistan players, two male and two female, represented the country in badminton. Murad Ali and Muhammad Irfan Saeed Bhatti played in the men’s singles and doubles categories.

Ali won his opening game against Ghana’s Aaron D. Tamakloe by 2-0, while lost his round of 32 match against Singapore’s J The 0-2.

Meanwhile, Bhatti followed the same suit, winning his first game against Zambia’s Chongo Mulenga 2-0 and sustained a defeat in the next fixture against Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong 2-0.

Pakistan’s top seed Mahoor Shahzad won her round of 64 match against Priyanna Ramdhani of Guyana, while she pulled out during the contest against India’s Akarshi Kashyap, citing an injury. She was 1-0 down in the game.

Another shuttler, Ghazala Siddiqui stood victorious in her first game of the multi-nation event against Falkland Islands’ Vicky Chater 2-0 and was knocked down by Jamaica’s Tahila Richardson.

The female duo of Mahoor and Ghazala faced a defeat in their first doubles match against Australia. On the other hand, Bhatti and Ali won their men’s doubles game.

They defeated South Africa’s pair of Jarred Elliot and Robert Summers 2-0, they were scheduled to face India’s Rakireddy Satwik Sairaj and Shetty Chirag Chandrashekhar on Friday.

Cricket

Pakistan women’s team had a rather underwhelming outing on the cricket field during the Games.

The Girls-in-Green were placed in Group A alongside arch-rivals India, Australia and Barbados.

Pakistan first faced the debutantes Barbados. Bisma Maroof won the toss and elected to bat first. The girls from the Caribbean posted a decent total of 144 runs on the board, courtesy of Kycia Knight’s unbeaten 62 (56) and captain Hayley Matthews’ 51 (50).

In reply, Pakistan could only score 129-6 in their quota of 20 overs with the help of a late-innings heroics from Nida Dar who scored 50 off 31 deliveries.

Pakistan next faced the neighbours in a completely one-sided affair. Maroof won the toss and elected to bat first this time.

However, it proved to be another unfavourable decision as they only managed to put 99 runs on the board. Muneeba Ali remained the pick of the batters for Pakistan with 32 runs of 30 balls.

Meanwhile, Smriti Mandhana single-handedly steered India to a convincing victory, scoring 63 off 42 deliveries. India chased down the target in 11.4 overs and at a loss of two wickets.

Australia were the next in line for Pakistan. This time, Australia won the toss and opted to bat first.

Pakistan got two quick wickets, but Beth Mooney and Tahli McGrath had a mammoth 141-run partnership, where they remained unbeaten on 70 (49) and 78 (51), respectively, taking their team to 160/2.

In response, Pakistan scored 116/8 runs in their 20 overs. Just three Pakistani batters could reach double-figure. The team returned home without tasting a win.

Hockey

Yet again, the Pakistan men’s hockey team could not live up to the fans’ expectations and failed to finish even in the top five.

The four-time world champions started their campaign against South Africa, which ended up as a 2-2 draw. It was a thrilling contest where the Proteas dominated the contest for the majority of the time. It was just in the last minute when Afraz Hakeem scored an equaliser.

The Green Shirts next played New Zealand and suffered a heavy loss by 4-1. Pakistan’s goal was bombarded with one attack after another under the floodlights when it was pouring heavily.

If it was not for Akmal Hussain’s brilliant goalkeeping, it would have been disastrous for the losing team.

Hugo Inglis scored two, while Dylan Thomas and Sam Lane netted one goal apiece. Ghazanfar Ali remained Pakistan’s sole goal scorer in the game.

Pakistan then played Scotland who also gave them a tough time. Though the former Olympics medalist won the contest 3-2, they were made to work very hard by the Scottish side.

Afraz, Abdul Shahid and Rooman scored for Pakistan, while Cammy Golden and Struan Walker netted the ball for Scotland.

In their fourth outing, Australia absolutely outclassed Pakistan, claiming the contest 7-0. It was a one-sided affair where Jeremy Hayward and Tom Wickham scored two and Blake Govers, Jacob Anderson and Nathan Ephramus scored one each.