The sun burned with a fierce, summer-like intensity on the winter morning but it couldn’t temper the spirit of the competitors gunning for glory at the National Games on Tuesday.
The open field at the athletics venue hummed with simultaneous action — discus flying in one sector, hurdlers pacing in another. On the track, athletes bobbed and stretched, their shadows short under the midday blaze. In the stands, a scattered crowd fanned themselves, eyes darting between events.
The pool offered some respite from the blazing sun as swimming began at the Games on a day headlined by Commonwealth Games gold medallist Inam Butt extending his remarkable legacy by clinching his 18th national title — the most by any wrestler — and a national record for discus thrower Faryal Farooq.
Faryal’s feat was the culmination of a four-years effort; those long days of lonely training meeting minutes of razor-edged opportunity.
Through her first four throws, she was nowhere near the mark. The record, it seemed, would elude her once more.
Then, before her final attempt, her coach Ashraf Ali leaned in and told her he would be proud if she breaks the record.
Those words lit up the fire. Faryal spun, released, and the discus sailed — a silent arc against the blue clear sky. Every eye followed it until it thudded into the earth, well beyond the previous best. The official announced 38.21 meters — a new national record.
The crowd erupted. For Faryal, from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, it was ecstasy, the triumphant end of a quest.
“After hearing my coach’s words, I put everything into the final throw,” she told Dawn, breathless. “We get few opportunities to compete throughout the year, so I train all year for one event and try to leave my heart out in the field.”
While Faryal’s moment shone brightest, other stories unfolded across the scorched field, each adding a different hue to the day’s tapestry.
In the women’s 400m hurdles, Musarrat Shaheen of Wapda, hailing from Mianwali in Punjab, powered through the last 100 meters to claim gold.
Her smile afterwards was bright, but her words were sobering.
“It’s a killer sport,” she said while talking to Dawn, referring to the constant risk of injury.
Her hurdles weren’t just on the track. “Where I am from, there is that backward thinking that girls should stay in the house. Thankfully my family is supportive.”
For Qasim Fayyaz of the Army, from Chiniot, the 20km walk race was a battle against the clock and the elements. He finished seven minutes behind of his personal best, due to the extreme weather.
His routine reveals the brutal behind-the-scenes sacrifice: 90km of road running per week, twice-daily gym sessions in winter. “The body gets fatigued… We get very little time to rest. Focus on diet, which is very integral, is also not much.”
The drama of endurance played out differently in the men’s 400m hurdles, where Abid Razzak staged a late surge to snatch gold.
For most of the race, his Army team-mate Tajammul Hussain (silver) was on his neck, but Razzak hung on his shoulder. As the second-placed athlete faded in the final metres, Razzak pounced, edging ahead at the line.
“I practiced more than my team-mate — I guess those hours in training paid off today,” Razzak, who participated in the 2019 Asian Games, told Dawn. “This was my sixth national medal and hopefully there are more to come.”
Then there was the pure class of Olympian Faiqa Riaz. After winning the 100m the day before, she edged out HEC’s Khoula Umer Khan by a mere tenth of a second in the 200m, finishing in 25.10 seconds.
So intense was the effort that she collapsed onto the track afterwards, a world-class athlete laid low by the fight on home soil.
Earlier in the day, Wapda’s Iram Shehzadi had dominated the women’s 800m, while in the field, Amtul Rehman of HEC leapt to gold in the triple jump.
ARMY’S AQUATIC RULE
If the athletics arena was a stage for personal struggle, the swimming pool nearby was a display of sheer systemic dominance.
For a unit representing the armed forces on land, Army sure knew how to rule the waters. Their men’s team bagged only gold and silver in every event — 11 medals without a single bronze — while their women opened the day with five golds and a bronze.
Leading the charge were Olympians, past and present.
Paris Olympian Jehanara Nabi and Tokyo veteran Bismah Khan bagged two individual golds each, then teamed up to cruise to first in the women’s 4x100m relay.
Jehanara, the Lahore-born all-rounder now based in the UK, stormed to gold in the 400m Individual Medley a full 35 seconds ahead of her rivals.
Her Paris team-mate, the soft-spoken Ahmed Durrani — now based in Dubai — mirrored that with two individual golds and a relay win.
“I haven’t really tapered for this event, it’s more of a warm-up competition for me,” he told Dawn off-handedly, a quiet statement of his calibre.Yet, even in this procession of Army, there were flashes of defiance. Hamza Asif disrupted the perfect winning streak to claim the men’s 100m freestyle gold.
And Hareem Malik emerged as Sindh’s saviour, snatching the province’s only swimming gold in the women’s 200m breaststroke.
“It always means a lot when you can win for your team, that too with such high stakes,” the national record holder told Dawn, though she admitted a crammed season and exams had clouded her training.
Army had another triumph on the tennis court, where they downed arch-rivals Wapda — led by the legendary Aqeel Khan — 2-1.
Wapda lost the women’s team final by the same scoreline to Islamabad.
INAM’S 18TH GOLD
Inam claimed the 92kg freestyle gold with his Wapda team-mate Junaid Khan winning in the 57kg. The 70kg crown was shared by Punjab’s Abdullah and Army’s Baber Shah. Army’s Asadullah secured gold in the 79kg category.
In shooting, Navy enjoyed a strong outing as Aqib Latif won the 10m Air Rifle men’s individual gold, while Rasam Gul clinched the 25m pistol women’s gold. Olympian Kishmala Talat settled for silver for Army.
Navy also captured the women’s 25m pistol team title through Rabia Kabir, Rasam Gul and Lubna Amin.
Army secured the 10m Air Rifle men’s team gold, courtesy Sarfraz Gul, Mohammad Uzman and Sulaiman Khan.
In gymnastics, Wapda topped the standings with 264.95 points, followed by Army (260.05) and Higher Education Commission (HEC) (214.10).
Wapda’s Shah Jehan dominated the men’s individual apparatus finals, taking gold in the Rings and High Bar, while sharing the Floor title with Punjab’s M. Waqas.
Wapda’s Mohammad Afzal claimed gold in the Parallel Bars and jointly in the Vault alongside team-mate Shehzad Ali. HEC’s Faizan won the Pommel Horse.
In women’s fencing, HEC’s Kareema secured gold in the sabre-style event, while Balochistan’s Barira triumphed in the foil-style final.
In sailing, Navy and the Pakistan Air Force won the J80 Fleet Racing and J80 Match Racing gold medals, respectively.
AN ECHOING CALL
Beneath the individual medals and across disciplines, a collective refrain echoed — a stark reminder of the chasm between heart and support system.
Back on the field, Fatima, the javelin gold medalist from Faisalabad, pointed to the very tools of her trade.
“The international-level javelins are very expensive. We don’t have them here,” she revealed while talking to Dawn.
Her best throw of 42.38m was solid, but she knows the world touches 65 meters.
Waqas Akbar of Army, who dominated the men’s 800m from Vihari, praised the “fast track” in Karachi but lamented, “We didn’t get these types of track in our hometown or in the camps… If we get more hard tracks like these in training, we can be even better.”
From the pole vault pit, Mohammad Asif of Sargodha, who came within 14cm of a national record, simply said, “I really wanted to break it… I am now eyeing the next meet.”
The sentiment was clear: the ambition is there, the talent is visible, but the path is made steeper by what’s missing — whether it’s equipment, tracks or competitive exposure.
FALLING AND RISING
As the sun began to dip, the last track events concluded. In the 110m hurdles, Army’s Mohammad Naeem from Qasoor secured gold, crediting the rivalry with his team-mate for bringing out his best.
For him, the event was a metaphor bigger than a medal.
“It’s the test of pure grit,” he told Dawn. “More important than a medal is that you complete and do your best. You fall and get up, and that’s what really matters.”
His words lingered in the evening air, as the empty field and quiet pool settled into dusk. The athletes had given their all — some broke records in the sand and water, some broke personal barriers on the track, all confronted the gaps they cannot bridge alone.
They fell, they got up, and for one more day, they rose. The heat would return tomorrow. So would they.
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