Daily Times

KARACHI: Maaz Khan won a bronze in the -75kg kickboxing full-contact competition at the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on Monday and added to Pakistan’s collection of medals, which now stands at 21 – good enough for 19th place out of 34 countries. Maaz, the 2010 South Asian Games wushu gold-medallist, had an impressive run as he defeated Afghanistan’s Rohollah Muhammadi 2-0 to reach the semi-final, but his journey ended there as he was beaten by Iran’s Hossein Karami 3-0, which still netted him a bronze. “It was a good run for Maaz as he is a first-time kickboxer,” Pakistan Wushu Federation’s (PWF) Malik Iftikhar Ahmed said. “It was a good performance as Iranians are much better competitors at kickboxing.”

The feat looks even more impressive when coupled with the fact that Maaz is not a regular kickboxer. “This was a switch for Maaz, and also Muhammad Bilal who had asked for our permission to represent Pakistan at the kickboxing event in Ashgabat,” revealed Malik. “Since we were not a part of the programme we allowed our players to go because they should get an opportunity.

It is a proud moment for us.” Meanwhile, wrestler Muhammad Inam can match Maaz’s third-place finish when he takes on Kazakhstan’s Adilet Davlumbayev in his second repechage of the men’s 86kg freestyle event. He would be hoping that this one goes better than the quarter-finals and first repechage, where he lost to Iran’s Ezzatollah Akbarizarinkolaei and China’s Zyshen Lin respectively.

Published in Daily Times, September 26^th 2017.