Daily Times

JAKARTA: Quetta’s Nargis won a bronze medal in karate at the Asian Games here on Saturday. She outplayed Nepal’s Rita Karki 3-1 to claim the medal in the +68kg event. Hailing from Quetta’s persecuted Hazara community, the 19-year-old is following in the footsteps of Kulsoom Hazara who won the South Asian Championships earlier. The female karatekas have been striving hard to make their name in the sport and Nargis’ bronze is the much needed head way. She is also the first Pakistani female to win a karate medal at the Asian Games.

“I had the expectation of winning the medal, my friends and my coaches everyone were expecting this, I gave everything on the floor,” Nargis said in her media statement. Nargis added: “I believe that Pakistanis should not make excuses anymore; that is my advice to other female athletes. We always think that being a Pakistani we can’t achieve much, but we can.” This is Pakistan’s second medal at the Games. Earlier, kabaddi took a bronze medal.

Published in Daily Times, August 26^th 2018.