Pakistan maintain winning runs in hockey, kabaddi at Asian Games; soft tennis, fencing teams falter

Pakistan’s hockey and kabaddi teams continued their impressive starts at the Asian Games on Tuesday, while the country’s fencers and soft tennis players endured a difficult day.

Pakistan made it two wins from two in Pool B hockey, downing Uzbekistan 5-1 at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium.

After a goalless first quarter, Mohammad Ammad opened the scoring in the 18th minute, only for Uzbekistan to shock the national side with an equaliser right on the stroke of half-time, Shokhrukhbek Salimjonov converting a penalty corner in the 30th minute.

The goal jolted Pakistan into action.

Three minutes after the restart, Sufyan Khan restored the lead from a penalty corner — his third goal in two matches — before Abdul Rehman doubled the advantage in the 40th minute from another corner.

Abu Mahmood put the result beyond doubt with a penalty, and Sufyan added gloss in the 57th minute with his second of the match.

Pakistan, who opened their campaign with a 9-0 rout of Thailand on Sunday, next face China, who beat Thailand 8-1, on Thursday.

The kabaddi team also secured their second win of the competition, beating Nepal 58-43 in a Group B clash at the Tokai Citizen Gymnasium.

Led by captain Mudassar Ali, Pakistan built a comfortable 30-17 lead by half-time. Nepal fought back in a tighter second half, but the early deficit proved too much to overcome.

Pakistan’s defence forced six all-outs and their raiders claimed eight bonus points, with 44 outs recorded in total.

The win sets up a clash with Thailand on Wednesday.

In fencing, Pakistan’s Baryal Khan and Mohammed Yaseen Khan lost all five of their bouts in the men’s foil individual at the Aichi Sky Expo Hall.

The 25-year-old Baryal fell to India’s Sachin 5-0, then lost to Jeonghyun Youn of South Korea 5-1. Defeats followed against Mongolia’s Chingis Narmandakh (5-2), Kazakhstan’s Galim Nurumov (5-1) and Chinese Taipei’s Chih-Chieh Chen (5-2).

Youngster Yaseen, 18, lost four of his five bouts 5-0, managing a single point in his only competitive encounter, a 5-1 defeat to Kazakhstan’s Timofey Semyonov.

Qatar’s Abdulrahman Poorgharib, South Korea’s Kwanghyun Lee, Oman’s Ahmed Keskes and China’s Zhaoran Zheng all handed him 5-0 defeats.

In equestrian, Pakistan’s Usman Khan placed 19th out of 32 competitors in the individual eventing dressage phase, riding Eden du Veret to a score of 36.70 penalties (63.33 per cent).

The 45-year-old, partnered with the Selle Francais gelding, delivered a mid-pack performance in a competitive field, finishing just below the halfway mark.

His score leaves him with ground to make up as the competition moves into the jumping and cross-country phases.

The soft tennis rot continued in the singles event on Tuesday, with Eraj Zaidi and Kainaat Shallwani each losing both of their matches 4-0 at the Nagoya City Higashiyama Park Tennis Centre.

In the men’s section, Mohammad Ali and Hussain Arain fared no better, losing all of their matches without winning a single game.