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DAWN.COM •

Rayan, Azlan headline Pakistan’s performance at junior swim worlds with new national records

Pakistan’s junior male swimmers tore through the national record books as Rayan Awan and Azlan Sohail set new marks at the World Junior Swimming Championships in Romania, which concluded on Sunday. Rayan clocked 30.87 in the Men’s 50m Breaststroke to smash the previous record of 30.98 set by Abdul Aziz Chaudhry 17 years ago. To put it into perspective, the record was set before Rayan was even born. He finished 58th out of 86 swimmers in the breaststroke sprint. Azlan can safely call himself the...
DAWN.COM •

‘Mazhab nahi, soch badlo’: Religious minorities seek end to forced conversions, intolerance

“I have a problem with the use of the term ‘minority’. It only serves to otherise religious groups within the country and reinforce existing divides. We are all equal citizens of Pakistan.” Christians like Pastor Daniel were among hundreds gathered at Karachi’s YMCA on Sunday for the Minority Rights March, which, ironically, was celebrated a day earlier since “minorities wouldn’t get a day off to celebrate it”. Jinnah’s oft-quoted speech of Pakistani citizens being free to go to temples and plac...
DAWN.COM •

Arshad Nadeem retains javelin supremacy with gold at Asian Athletics Championship

Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem threw a massive 86.40m to win gold in the men’s javelin final at the Asian Athletics Championship in Gumi, South Korea, on Saturday. India’s Sachin Yadav took silver with an 85.16m and Japan’s Yuta Sakiyama took home bronze with an 83.75m throw. Both athletes threw a personal best. After leading the field in the first few throws, Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage was bumped off the podium to finish fourth with an 83.27m throw. India’s Yash Vir Singh finished fi...
DAWN.COM •

Noor clinches world squash title with thrilling comeback in front of home crowd

Noor Zaman had the comeback of the tournament when he put on a show for a full house arena to be crowned men’s champion in the U23 World Squash Championship here in Karachi. The 21-year-old was up against Egypt’s Karim El Torkey in what was expected to be anyone’s game as both men entered the final unbeaten throughout the tournament. Noor took the first point in front of a packed home crowd full of citizens, foreign dignitaries, and squash legends like Jahangir Khan, Gogi Aladdin and Qamar Zaman...
Aurora Magazine •

Rising Stars: Youth Climate Activists From Pakistan

Climate change is more than just a buzzword for the generation most impacted by it. For young activists across the country, this isn’t an abstract issue; it is a fight for survival, justice and the future. They are actively rewriting the narrative on addressing climate change through local grassroots movements, educational resources and social media campaigns. Climate change became personal for Didar Ali when the 2010 floods destroyed the agricultural lands and indige...
DAWN.COM •

SWIMMING: THE FIRST LADIES OF THE POOL

The first time Pakistan’s fastest female swimmer competed was when she snuck into a men’s race at Karachi’s elite Sind Club. It was the late 1980s, and women like Shaan Kandawalla had nowhere to swim competitively. And while she was just a teenager, Shaan’s mission in life was to correct this bias. By the time she bowed out of the sport a decade later, her greatest achievement was not the records she had shattered every year, or the garland of gold medals she had won at every championship, but t...
DAWN.COM •

Mahnoor Ali, Harmas Raja clinch U13, U11 titles at US Junior Squash Open

Pakistan’s Mahnoor Ali was crowned the Under-13 champion at the US Junior Squash Open while compatriot Muhammad Harmas Ali Raja took home the U11 title at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. Ali beat Egypt’s Linda Elsayed 11-8, 12-10 before taking a setback in third set with a 5-11 loss. However, the 11-year-old made a solid comeback 11-6 to win the fourth set and U13 title, becoming the first Pakistani to do so. The U13 Asian No 2 has remained undefeated through...
DAWN.COM •

PARALYMPICS: THE UNSUNG CHAMPION

After his 52.54m throw that won him a bronze medal in the Men’s F37 Discus Throw event at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Haider Ali has been waiting. And waiting. And waiting. As Pakistan’s most decorated para athlete, he no longer yearns for success. It’s recognition and respect from the nation that he craves, something he’s scarcely had in almost 20 years. Now in its final stretch, his athletic career has been a bright, wondrous firework, illuminating Pakistan’s sports scene, only to dissipa...
DAWN.COM •

KGS dominate as Women’s Sindh Open marks 30th year

KARACHI: Records were shattered and legacies lengthened as the Palmolive Sindh Women’s Swimming Championship marked its milestone 30th year here at the Karachi Club on Sunday. Karachi Grammar School (KGS) obliterated the field with a mammoth 741 points, while smaller but equally mighty teams of CAS and Karachi Club finished at second (218 points) and third place (129 points), respectively. Nearly 20 new records were created across six age groups at the two-day championship, the largest and olde...
Aurora Magazine •

No Sponsors – No Champions

In Pakistan, athletes can usually only dream of becoming Number One, and when some make it to Number One, that moment can be a fleeting one-time occurrence. Not because they are not good enough to stay at the top, but because they do not know if they will be able to compete again. International competitions and training at an elite level are costly, and without sponsorships, their dreams risk petering out as soon as they have materialised. Sponsorships are what sustain elite athletes in the long...
DAWN.COM •

Haider Ali wins bronze in Paris, 4th paralympic medal of his career

Pakistan’s Haider Ali won bronze in the Men’s Discus Throw F37 on Friday with a 52.54m throw, clinching his fourth Paralympic medal. Uzbekistan’s Tolibboy Yuldashev took home gold with a massive 57.28m throw, setting a personal best on his sixth attempt. Canada’s Jesse Zesseu won silver with a 53.24m throw. A jubilant Ali could be seen taking his victory lap after the competition was over, hugging the other medallists and competitors in the process. Ali led the field in the first attempt with a...
DAWN.COM •

Meet Haider Ali, Pakistan’s star Paralympian

Twenty years ago, Haider Ali was a teenager from Gujranwala living with Cerebral Palsy. He didn’t know he’d be a Paralympic champion someday, but today, he’s going in to defend his title in the Men’s Discus Throw F37. The journey to this point has been a long one, but Ali has been well-supported every step of the way. It was 2005 when Ali’s talent caught the eye of sports officials at a training camp in Faisalabad. After being classified for para sports by national classifier Dr Rabab, Ali was g...
DAWN.COM •

Hundreds in Karachi march against enforced disappearances

Hundreds marched in Karachi on Friday to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, carrying banners of loved ones who have been forcibly disappeared or killed. On December 21, 2010, the UN General Assembly, through a resolution, voiced deep concern over the rise in enforced disappearances worldwide, including related arrests, detentions, and abductions, as well as the harassment and intimidation of witnesses and relatives of the disappeared. The resolution also welcom...
Aurora Magazine •

The Making of Arshad Nadeem

A single 92.97 metre javelin throw on a balmy summer evening in Paris was all it took to rouse Pakistan’s sporting glory from the deep slumber it had fallen into. The country was thirsting for an end to its Olympic medal drought and Arshad Nadeem went above and beyond the call of duty to deliver what was so desperately lacking: a sense of accomplishment, unity through sports, and renewed hope. So earth-shattering was his performance that even his coach, Salman Butt, was surprised by what his pro...
DAWN.COM •

Arshad Nadeem beams as he wears Olympic gold medal for historic 92.97m javelin throw

Arshad Nadeem was awarded his gold medal on Friday after winning the men’s javelin throw with a monstrous 92.97m throw which shattered the Olympic record a day earlier. The 27-year-old stepped up to the podium to massive applause from the crowd, holding the coveted medal up to the camera. With one hand on his chest, Nadeem sang the national anthem as he watched Pakistan’s flag being raised after 40 years at an Olympic stadium. In a post earlier today on X, Nadeem dedicated his gold medal as a gi...
DAWN.COM •

Javelin star Arshad Nadeem ends Pakistan’s 40-year wait for Olympic gold

Arshad Nadeem set a new Olympic record on Thursday and ended Pakistan’s 32-year wait for success at the Games by clinching the coveted gold medal in the men’s javelin final in Paris. The Mian Channu-born was slow off the blocks, registering a no-throw on his first attempt of the night but shocked everyone on his second attempt, with a monstrous 92.97-m throw, which the rest of the field could not even come close for the rest of the competition. Beh...
DAWN.COM •

‘It’s what got me here’: Arshad Nadeem seeks nation’s prayers for Olympics javelin final

Pakistan’s superstar athlete Arshad Nadeem in a video message from Paris asked the nation for prayers ahead of the javelin final at the Paris 2024 Olympics. “Thank you for your prayers, and please continue praying for my success in the final,” he said in a video message on Wednesday. A day earlier, the 27-year-old cruised into Thursday night’s final with a solid 86.59m throw at the Stade de France, his first and only attempt of the qualifier round, which was also his season’s best....
DAWN.COM •

Arshad Nadeem cruises to Olympic javelin final with 86.59m season best throw

Arshad Nadeem cruised to the Olympic javelin final with a solid 86.59m throw in Tuesday’s qualifier round at Stade de France, keeping the nation’s hopes for an Olympic medal well and alive. His season best throw, the first and only of the qualifier, ranks him fourth heading into Thursday’s night finals. Reigning Olympic and world champion India’s Neeraj Chopra led the field with a massive 89.34m throw, also a season best. Sandwiched between the two South Asians were Grenada’s Anderson Peters in...
DAWN.COM •

It’s all or nothing for Arshad Nadeem in Paris

Arshad Nadeem is the best he can be. Yet, he has nothing. At least, nothing that makes him the best in the world. But he’s almost there, on the very cusp of it: a javelin throw away from making history and ending Pakistan’s three-decade long wait for an Olympic medal. It’s now about waiting and watching, and trusting the process. And praying. The only talisman he carries every competition is “puri mulk ke duaien.” He will do so again at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, when he steps into the Stade...
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