GUWAHATI: Pakistan beat India 1-0 to win gold in the hockey event of the 12th South Asian Games in Guwahati on Friday.
Awais-ur-Rehman scored the decisive goal at the end of first-half as Pakistan successfully completed hat-trick of SAG hockey titles.
The match, played out in front of a near-capacity crowd at the Moullanna Tayebullah Stadium, saw both teams starting cautiously before the Greenshirts upped the ante and broke through the Indian defence.
Rehman’s strike in the added time of the first half pushed Mohammad Irfan’s side to attack even more but found a strong wall in Indian goalkeeper Vikas Dahiya.
It was the fourth time the two arch-rivals were clashing in the final of men’s hockey at the regional extravaganza.
Pakistan beat India in both the 2004 and 2010 finals in Colombo and Dhaka, respectively, while India won the gold in 1995 in Madras.
Yesterday, Pakistan’s men and women shooting teams won silver medals in 50m rifle prone events as the country’s track and field stars brought home five bronze.
The men’s shooting team of Umar Siddique, Midrar Ali and Mohammad Amir shot a combined total of 1838.2 to finish second behind India (1871.5) at the Kahilipara Shooting Range.
Umar claimed bronze in the individual event when he shot 182.2 to finish behind Indians Chain Singh (204.6) and Gagan Narang (203.7).
The women’s team, meanwhile, managed a total of 1805.4 to secure silver behind the Indian team which shot a combined score of 1835.6.
The Indian dominance spilled onto the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium with Pakistan’s bronze medals in the men’s 400m hurdles, shot put and triple jump coming behind 1-2 finishes for their arch-rivals.
Mahboob Ali claimed bronze in the 400m hurdles while a throw of 16.28 metres got third place for Mohammad Waseem in the shot put.
Mohammad Afzal leapt 15.76 metres to win the triple jump bronze.
Pakistan’s Liaquat Ali clocked 21.53 seconds to finish third in the men’s 200m, his time 0.53 seconds shy of Sri Lankan winner Suranjava De Silva, while the country’s men’s 4x400m team also ending third behind India and Sri Lanka.
