ISLAMABAD: Pakistan earned two more medals at the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games 2017 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, on Friday, with wrestler Muhammad Adnan adding to Pakistan’s silver collection in the Pehelvani competition and Muhammad Sajjad bagging a bronze in the snooker 6-Red event. It means Pakistan athletes have now won 20 medals in the competition and occupy 17th place out of 32 countries in the standings. Adnan, who was gunning for gold and had defeated Singapore’s Benjamin Teo in the -90kg semi-finals, settled for the runners-up spot after losing to Iran’s Arashk Mohebi 10-0 in the final. In all, the 25-year-old took on five wrestlers at the event and won three of his fights.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Association (PBSA) officials believe Sajjad’s bronze is just the start and that their cueists will win more medals in the coming days. Sajjad, the Asian Snooker 6 Red Champion, lost 5-3 in the semi-finals to China’s Bingtao Yan – a professional player. “It was not an easy competition,†a PBSA spokesman said. “Yan is a professional player and if Sajjad had won he would’ve had the same difficulty in the final. This was a very competitive event so we are happy that at least we’ve started out the snooker competitions with a medal. That is morale-boosting in many ways.â€
The snooker contingent is also scheduled to participate in the team event and individuals’ tournament. The PBSA spokesman feels China and India will be their toughest rivals in the team competition but is confident that Pakistan cueists will hold their own. “If we get through to the quarter-finals we’ll be playing China, and then India is there too,†he said. “But we definitely have high hopes and are confident.â€
