Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Mustafa Faran Baig became the first Pakistani to win the Asian Classic Powerlifting Championship in 15 years, as he grabbed overall silver but two gold medals for recording the most amounts of weights in squat and dead-lifts in Mongolia the other day along with one bronze in bench press. The teenager was competing in the 93kg sub-junior category which features U18 athletes in the event.

According to Baig’s coach Muhammad Rashed, the medals were a shock at the event as the last time any Pakistani won in the Asian Classic Powerlifting event was Imran Khalid, that too in 2003 where he grabbed seven medals. Baig was making his international debut with the event as well. “This is a huge achievement,” Rashed said. “Baig had been working very hard for this, and I specifically trained him for this event to win. He has been training as a power-lifter for a few years now, but this is a big feat. Khalid had won seven medals in 2003, but he was competing in the open category. For Baig, that opportunity will come next time. This time around we could only have him entered in the age group and that limits the number of events.” Rashed also added that doing well against athletes from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Japan was tough.

Baig lifted a total of 537.5kgs to finish second to the winner who lifted 555kgs, however he got gold in squat with 190kgs and created an Asian record in dead-lift with 232.5kgs, whereas he also got a bronze for bench press with 115kgs. Baig will return to Pakistan on December 12. On the other hand Pakistani women including Twinkle Sohail and Rabia Razak were to take part in Mongolia as well, but there were issues in the travel and they had to back off from participating. The championship in Mongolia was featuring athletes from 27 countries.

Published in Daily Times, December 11^th 2018.