Boxer Gul Zeb falls in CWG pre-quarters

KARACHI: Pakistani boxer Gul Zeb faced exit when he lost his pre-quarter-final match to Aidan Walsh of the Northern Ireland on the fourth day of the 21st Commonwealth Games being held in Gold Coast, Australia on Saturday.

The 26-year-old Army’s pugilist went 0-5 down against the 21-year-old fighter in what was a one-sided contest at the Oxenford Studios. In Gul’s class, 23 nations are featuring which has made the event very tough.

Gul, who has the experience of playing in the Asian Championship in Tashkent last year, had taken a good start when he beat William Le Poullain of Guernsey 3-2 to progress to the next round the other day.

In the boxing slots, Pakistan is fielding four pugilists. With Gul already out of the event, all eyes are now on the 2016 South Asian Games silver medallists Ali Ahmed (60kg) and Syed Mohammad Asif (52kg) who will compete in the round of 16 on Monday (tomorrow).

The experienced boxer Awais Ali Khan will play his 81kg quarter-final on April 11.

Awais has the experience of playing in last year’s World Championships in Hamburg. Although he has no international medal, he is a good fighter. He had impressed in last year’s Asian Championship in Tashkent when he defeated an Indian boxer in the box-off fight to qualify for the global event. He fell sick during the global event and had to face an early exit after losing his first fight.

On Sunday (today), national swimmer Bisma Khan will compete in the women’s 100m freestyle. Bisma, the younger sister of Olympian Kiran Khan, had finished at the 32nd spot out of 40 contestants in the 50m freestyle the other day.

The national shooters will also begin their Gold Coast journey at the Belmont Shooting Centre in Brisbane on Sunday. This is the only event which Pakistan is featuring in outside Gold Coast.

In the women’s 10m air pistol qualification stage, Mehwish Farhan will represent Pakistan while in the men’s skeet qualification, solid Usman Chand will be put to a real test.

Similarly, shooter Ghufran Adil will compete on Sunday in the 10m air rifle qualification stage.

Pakistan is fielding five male and two female shooters in the quadrennial event in which the country has won several medals in the past.

Pakistan is expected to spring surprise in trap and double trap events.

After taking the only bronze so far through the record-setting weightlifter Talha Tablib in 62kg, who finished with a bronze, all eyes are now on the 31-year-old Usman Amjad Rathore who will compete in the 94 kilogramme competitions on Sunday.

Usman has some solid credentials as not only the WAPDA player has to his credit gold and silver medals in the South Asian Games but he also pulled off silver in the 2015 Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in Pune.

Abdullah Ghafoor (56kg) and Abu Sufyan (69kg) have already exited.

Nooh Dastgir Butt (plus 105kg) will fight for the medal on April 9.

The 19-year-old Nooh is the gold medallist of the Commonwealth Junior Championship and silver medallist of the senior section of the same event.

Nooh has also claimed gold in both youth and junior categories of the 2015 Commonwealth Championship in Pune.