Pakistani athletes made a remarkable performance at Special Olympics World Games 2015, bringing their total to 34 medals as the competition ended in Los Angeles on August 2.
Pakistan’s 34 medals include 13 gold, 11 silver, 10 bronze in eight disciplines.
Team’s strong performance has been well received at home. “The players have done tremendously well in these Summer Games,” said Special Olympics Pakistan director Sanam Saigol. “They did well in the last games too but this time around they have proved themselves to be real Olympians.”
Although Pakistan team won 51 medals in the 2013 Special Olympics Asia Pacific Games in Australia, “but this time their overall performance has been incredible,” Sanam Saigol said. “They have improved a lot and the new players have also proven themselves.”
The cyclists were the most impressive in the contest, winning 11 medals in total. Uzma Yousuf and Tauseef Hassan secured two gold medals each, in Time Trial and Road Race respectively, and one gold each was secured by Sumbal Yousuf and Salman Siddiqui in the Time Trial event. While Mehmoona Hussain and Khadija Irfan won a silver and bronze each in the same event, and Salman also secured a bronze in Time Trial.
In swimming, Asim Zar won gold and silver in 100m and 50m Freestyle races respectively, while Aqsa Janjua won gold in 50m Backstroke and silver in the 50m Freestyle race.
Pakistan team secured a total of eight medals in athletics, where Ramail Irshad won gold and Saira Ikram, Nadir Hussain, Amina Irshad and Amjad Khan won silver medals, while Marvi Azhar, Nayab Bibi, and Muhammad Waseem won bronze.
In badminton, Jahanzaib and Ume Salma Tayyab won gold in the mixed doubleevent, while the two also clinched a gold each in the singles events.
In tennis, Ahsan Anwar and Muhammad Qayyum won gold in the doubles event, while Anwar and Qayyum won silver and bronze respectively in the singles category.
Table Tennis players Muhammad Arham and Faisal Khursheed won silver in the doubles event, while Khursheed won bronze with Ruqia Latif in the mixed doubles. Ruqia also won a bronze in the singles event.
The basketball team won silver medal in Division TM.06MedalB, which had a total of 10 players in the squad.