Naqash, Taimur & Danish clinch medals in El-Hassan Taekwondo Championship G-1 2019
Taimur and Danish itched their names on bronze medals while Naqas claimed silver medal in the 2019 El-Hassan Taekwondo Championship G-1 which concluded successfully in Amman.
Several taekwondo fighters from Pakistan featured in three different international taekwondo events from 18th to 29th July in Amman, Jordan. Pakistani Taekwondo Team consisted of 25 members including officials and athletes among which Pakistan managed to claim a total of 8 medals, three by female athletes and five by male taekwondo fighters.
The El-Hassan Taekwondo Championship G-1 proved to be promising for Pakistani athletes as three of them won medals which includes Taimur Saeed, Danish, Naqash Hamdani, Fatima, Saad Haroon Khan and Jibran.
Taimoor Saeed and Danish managed to clinch bronze medals to their tally in the -53 KG weight category as they lost in the final. Taimur performed stunning well but his efforts were not enough to earn him the top spot as he lost 7-9 in the semifinals against Kuwaiti player in the 78 plus KG weight category, while on the other hand, Danish lost semifinals against Jordanian player in the -78 KG Under-17 category by 9-16. Earlier, Taimoor Saeed knocked out Indian Bhardwaj Akash in 78 KG plus weight and moved into the semi-finals.
Other players also tried their best to win medals which included Ammar and Adeeba, who lost in the quarterfinals against Qatari and UAE players in -68 KG and -59 KG weight classes, while Fatima made it to the semifinals as she beat Jordanian in female U-14 in -47 KG weight class. Saad also won against UAE player in the U-14 boys in -61 KG weight category and move into the semifinals.
While Naqash Hamdani won silver medal for Pakistan in the -53 KG weight category in the same championship and Haroon Khan and Jibran won bronze medals after losing in the semi-finals to Lebanon and Iranian opponents, respectively.
Pakistan Taekwondo Federation, President, Lt Col (R) Wasim Ahmed Janjua said, “It is a huge disappointment for Pakistan, as our sure-shot medal hope Sanin Ashfaq badly injured his knee and had to withdraw both from junior and cadet categories."
He also informed that now Fatima will also represent the country in World Cadet Championship next month in Uzbekistan and would be the first Pakistani, who will participate in the mega international event.
