Daily Times

QUETTA: In the race for individual gold medal seeking honours in the ongoing 34th National Games Golf in Quetta, after the conclusion of the second round on Friday, Nouman Ilyas (Pakistan Army) took over the leadership reins from Mohammad Arsalan who slips to fourth position after a modest round of gross 76. As for Nouman, he certainly put up a commendable array of accurate shot making that enabled him to come up with a noteworthy score of gross 70 and two-round aggregate of 143, three over par. While he earned the honour of finding his name at the top on the leaderboard, there were two adversaries Salman Jehangir (WAPDA) and Shahzaib Jahan (Army) placed two strokes behind him at a score of 145. During the course of the second round, Salman stood out as the champion with the best round of the day. His score of gross 69 was in the under-par category and accredited him as a serious contender for the ultimate gold medal aspirant. Some more worthy ones who improved on their first round performances were Hussain Hamid (WAPDA) scoring a gross 72 as against a 74 the previous day, Irtiza Hussain (Navy) a 72 while first days round was 76 and Mohammad Shoaib (Army) scored 71 as against a poor 77 on the first day.

A review of the aggregate scores after two rounds reflected the top position holder Noman at 143 followed by Shahzaib and Salman at 145, Arsalan and Hussain at 146, Irtiza and Shoaib at 148.These contestants are very much in the run for top honours and the competitive race is animated and vigorous. Others placed a little behind but still determined to perform were Asif Khan, Shahzaib Khan and Usama Nadeem, all bracketed at a two rounds aggregate score of 151. At 152 was Ahmed Zafar Hayat .

The leader team in the Inter Team event was Army comprising Shahzaib, Noman, Shoaib and Arsalan. Their team score after two rounds was 429 and they were ahead of WAPDA by a margin of 15 strokes. WAPDA have services of Hussain Hamid, Salman, Noman Asghar and Danish Javed. Placed third was PAF at a score of 459. PAF members are Usama Nadeem, Muslim Abbas, Daniyal Jehangir and Damil Ataullah. Women also completed their first round, out of three rounds, yesterday. Leader in individual category was Hamna Amjad (PAF). Her score was gross 74. Placed second was Parkha Ijaz (Army) at a score of gross 75 followed by Suneya Osama (Army) 77. Ana James Gill was at 78 and Rimsha Ijaz at 79.