Karachi, Aug. 5 (ANI): The president of the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) has expressed his disappointment over sprinter Liaqat Ali's quick exit from the men's 100 meter preliminary round at the London Olympics.
"Ali has been given four international events, but he has only disappointed us. Now, we're looking at Imran Niazi as his replacement," The Express Tribune quoted Akram Sahi, as saying.
"Liaqat may have done well at domestic level, but he lacks the confidence to do well in international events. He had an ordinary run which was very poor," he added.
Meanwhile, Ali's mentor Maqsood Ahmed said it was a poor run and the athlete failed to show his talent on the world's biggest sporting stage.
Ahmed claimed that if Ali had been sent abroad for training, his results would have been better.
"It was a poor performance, but at the same time, we must not forget that he had practised on tartan track, while in London, he had to run on Mondo track. Athletes need a big boost, and I'd request the AFP to start sending them abroad for training so that they can at least bag gold medals at the SAF Games," Ahmed said.
Liaqat could only manage 10.9s, a far cry from his personal best of 10.55s. Apart from the quick exit, he also rued the fact that he was unable to break the national record of 10.42s or even equal his personal best.
"I wanted to avoid a false start, which is why I was really slow out of the blocks, and that ultimately proved fatal for my Olympics journey. It was always difficult to narrow down the gap. I gave it my all in the end, only to anxiously miss qualification by 0.1 seconds," Liaqat said. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
