Pakistan Army continues to rule with 71 golds

KARACHI: The Pakistan Army tightened its grip on the medal table at the 35th National Games on Tuesday, completing a half-century of golds as competition intensified across multiple disciplines.

Providing context to a busy day of competition, officials said the athletics program alone featured decisions in 12 gold medal events at the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) facility in the city.

Pakistan Army’s Faryal Farooq produced one of the standout performances in athletics, managing a record throw of 38.21 meters to win the women’s discus title.

“This discus has been my goal all year,” she said after securing gold for her division.

In the women’s javelin, Fatima Hussain of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) maintained her dominance with a throw of 42.38 meters to claim yet another gold.

The athletics events saw Faiqa Riaz cruise to victory in the women’s 200m, winning her second gold of the Games, while WAPDA’s Iram Shehzadi topped the women’s 800m.

In the hurdles, Wapda’s Musarrat Shaheen won the women’s 400m title, with Army’s Mohammad Naeem winning gold in the men’s 110m hurdles.

Pakistan Army enjoyed further success in endurance and field events, with Qasim Faiz winning gold in the 20km race walk, Asif triumphing in the men’s pole vault and Waqas Akbar winning the men’s 800m.

In the women’s 5km walk, Wapda’s Amara took top honors, while Ummat-ur-Rehman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) secured gold in the triple jump.

Weightlifting has begun at Scout Headquarters, with four categories of women being decided. Gold medals were won by Shafaq Waheed (48kg, Wapda), Nida Fatima (53kg, Army), Arjumand Khan (58kg, Army) and Noor Fatima (63kg, Army).

HEC added another fencing gold through Karima Parveen, who defeated her division teammate Faryal Shahid 15-13 in the women’s category.

Wrestling also took off, with Pakistan star Inam Butt securing gold on the opening day. Wapda’s Junaid (57kg), Army’s Asadullah (79kg) and Punjab’s Abdullah (70kg) also topped their divisions.

In squash, Pakistan Army won the men’s and women’s team titles, defeating Wapda and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, respectively.

Swimming opened with Pakistan Army winning five women’s golds, while Sindh’s Hareem Malik added one more for her province.

In men’s swimming, Pakistan Army won five gold medals while Wapda won one.

In the shooting arena the Pakistan Army’s gold tally rose to 11, closely followed by the Navy with nine.

Islamabad finally opened their account as the women’s tennis team defeated Wapda 2-1 to secure the capital’s first gold in the event.

At the end of the day, the Pakistan Army leads the medal tally with 71 golds, along with 29 silvers and 18 bronzes.

Wapda remained second in the standings with 27 golds, followed by Pakistan Navy with 10.

Overall, competition intensified across Karachi as divisions continued their push for supremacy in Pakistan’s premier multi-sport spectacle.