Pak athletes leave for Asian Indoor C’ships

KARACHI: Five Pakistan athletes and an official on Monday flew out of Lahore for Tehran to feature in the 8th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, which will be held from February 1-3.

Olympian Mehboob Ali, his brother Nokar Hussain, Rana Nadeem Bashir, Tanvir Baboo and Nishat Ali are the athletes. Former national athlete Habib-ur-Rehman, who is also the president of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Athletics Association, is part of the touring party as manager.

The athletes were scheduled to depart for Iran on Sunday night but their flight was delayed due to bad weather in Tehran, a senior official of the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) told ‘The News’.

Mehboob and Nokar, both from Army, will feature in 400m and 4x400m relay. In relay, the duo will be joined by promising youngsters Nishat Ali (Army) and Rana Nadeem Bashir (Army).

Tanvir Baboo of WAPDA will compete in the 60m race. Mehboob told ‘The News’ from Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, that they had a medal chance in both 400m and 4x400m relay. “We can win medals in 400m and 4x400m relay. We have trained hard and are very much motivated,” the Olympian said.

In the relay, Pakistan’s performance has been well. Last year Pakistan finished with a silver medal in relay in the Islamic Games in Baku and gold in the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. AFP secretary Mohammad Zafar said he expected his athletes to put in their best. “We are sending the best athletes and I hope they will do well in both 400m and 4x400m relay,” Zafar told this correspondent. Pakistan’s squad will return home on February 4. The athletes had been training in Islamabad for the last couple of months.