Special Olympics World Games in Athens

KARACHI: Pakistan received a huge honour on the eve of the Special Olympics World Games in Athens when it was selected to carry the Olympic Torch from among the 185 participating countries at the historic opening ceremony scheduled for Saturday evening.

Reliable sources from Athens said Pakistan’s talented young swimmer Farah Vohra have been chosen to carry the torch for the strong 82-member contingent which will be leading all the teams at the grand ceremony.

Farah Vohra who hails from Karachi has been swimming for the past six years and is competing in two events — the 25-metre backstroke and 25-metre freestyle — at the World Games.

Ronak Lakhani, the senior Pakistan official in the delegation, said: “We specially chose Farah to carry the torch because she has overcome her disability to become a confident, articulate young woman with the help of the Special Olympics of Pakistan (SOP) programme. Pakistan is very proud of all the mentally-challenged people on our programmes throughout the country.”

Having met with a warm welcome upon arrival in Athens last Monday, the Pakistan delegation have spent the last five days enjoying the historic city and training alongside the sea.

Pakistan will be participating in eight sports competitions, namely athletics, aquatics, badminton, basketball, bocce (a ball game for low ability athletes), cycling, football and table tennis.—Agencies

Olympic misery for Iran China and North Korea

SINGAPORE: China crashed out of London 2012 Olympics qualifying in controversial circumstances while Asian champions Japan survived a scare to make it safely through to the next stage.

Australia and South Korea also booked their places in the final qualifying round alongside resurgent Malaysia, while United Arab Emirates dashed North Korean hopes with a narrow 2-1 aggregate win.

But the biggest casualty of the night was China, who had a player sent off and a goal disallowed in Muscat before humble Oman scored three goals in extra time to run out 4-1 aggregate winners.

China, fighting to overturn a shock 1-0 deficit from the first leg in Shanghai, lost midfielder Zhang Linpeng to injury after just four minutes but managed to level the tie through Wu Xi deep into the second half.

But Cao Yunding was red-carded for a late tackle just three minutes later, before the linesman’s intervention ruled out a dramatic stoppage-time winner when Wu’s close-range strike was flagged offside.

During extra time in baking conditions, Hussain Al Hadhri scored twice and Yaqoob Abdul Karim added another to extend China’s miserable international football record.

“The weather was hot and the players are not used to this type of weather, and in extra time a lot of the players were suffering and we could not organise ourselves properly,” said assistant coach Li Bing.

“It is a shame we have lost the chance to play in the next phase, but we have learnt a lot from this match.”

Saki Oriki eased Japanese jitters in Kuwait when he netted first at Mohammed Al Hamad Stadium, extending their advantage to 4-1. But the nerves returned when Kuwait scored twice in the second half to run the Asian giants close.

A 1-1 draw in Jordan was enough for South Korea after they convincingly won the first leg in Seoul. But Australia had no concerns as they slotted four unanswered goals past Yemen to run up a 7-0 aggregate score.

Iraq overturned a 1-0 first-leg deficit to advance 2-1 at the expense of arch-rivals Iran, while Southeast Asian champions Malaysia beat Lebanon to go through.

Among other results, Saudi Arabia finished 6-1 winners against Vietnam, Qatar ousted India and Uzbekistan booted out Hong Kong.

This week’s 12 winning teams will be split into three groups of four for final qualifying, with the three top sides all gaining automatic entry to the London Olympics.

The second-placed teams go into a three-way round robin, with the winner playing off against a side from the African confederation for another ticket to the Games.

Men’s football is played as an under-23 tournament at the Olympics, although the rules allow for three over-age players.

Aisam, Bopanna knocked out in Wimbledon first round

KARACHI: The pair of Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Indian Rohan Bopanna was knocked out in the first round of the men’s doubles competition at the Wimbledon tennis championships on Thursday.
The Colombian duo of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah fought back from a set down to turn the tables on their opponents 2-6, 6-2, 21-19.—Correspondent

Pakistan flay Kazakhstan in Junior Asia Cup

KARACHI: Pakistan’s junior hockey team outclassed Kazakhstan 12-0 in the third U-18 Junior Asia Cup in Singapore on Thursday.
Mohammad Umair scored four goals while Khurram Shahzad, Bilal Qadir and Arsalan Qadir got two each with Hafiz Rizwan and Mohammad Irfan adding one each.

Friday is a rest day in the championship with the first semi-final between Pakistan and South Korea to be played on Saturday.— Agencies