Pakistan Athletics: a proud
past
Khaliq, Raziq, Mubarak, Iqbal once formed a dream team
From Muhammad Aamir
Uppal March 1993
Exactly five years
ago, in March 1988, a single column obituary note appeared in a leading English
daily mourning the death of a former sprinter Abdul Khaliq. The note was only a couple of paragraphs long
buried inside a remote corner of the sports pages.
Khaliq certainly
deserved more than a mere mention of his death.
As the news of the demise of the once fastest man of Asia passed unnoticed
so did the state of Pakistan athletics that
continues to follow a gradual decline.
Today, on his fifth
death anniversary, one can recall the days of Abdul Khaliq – when undoubtedly Pakistan athletics were at
their zenith. With the likes of Ghulam
Raziq, Mubarak Shah and Mohammad Iqbal representing the country together, it
had been a dream team and one can only yearn for the return of those golden
days.
This can also be
judged from the fact that in the 24th National Games in Lahore recently
only three national records could be beaten whereas in the late 1950, no less
that six Asian record were credited to Pakistan athletes at one time.
Ironically, despite
the fact Khaliq won two successive gold medals in the Asian games in the 100 meters,
he never had luck on his side in his entire international career that spanned
the years from 1954 to 1962.
At the Rome Olympiad,
he was nosed out in the quarter-finals on a photo-finish. He had clocked 10.4
seconds, a time which was only bettered y the eventual medalists. His 9.6
seconds for the 100 yards was an All British Games record in Manchester in 1957 and yet he
failed to win a single gold medal in the Commonwealth Games for one reason or
the other.
His records in the
100 and 200 meters are yet to be surpassed by and player in this country.
Ghulam Raziq was an
athlete extraordinaire. The 34-years old Asian champ would certainly have
worked miracles had his talent been discovered while he was in his teens. He
started his international career after he had passed his prime and yet he
remained at the top among the individual medal winners for Pakistan.
Winner of the
President’s Medal for Pride of Performance in 1963, Pakistan’s ace hurdler was
unaware of his fate in sports even after he had celebrated his 25th
birthday – an age when most athletes start thinking of retirement.
Incredibly, his
last national title came at 36 and his timings at this ripe old age are hard to
beat even today. His 14.0 second record in the 110 meters hurdles has only once
been beaten – by Ghulam Abbas in Lahore in the National
Games early this year.
His 14.3 seconds
remained a record at the Asian level for quite some time, where he won gold
medals in 1958 (Tokyo) and 1966 (Bangkok). He had also won
a gold in Perth in the 1962
Commonwealth Games. It was a sort of record that Raziq never knocked down a
hurdle in his entire career.
From amongst
Khaliq’s other compatriots were Mubarak Shah and Mohammad Iqbal. Mubarak Shah
made his debut for Pakistan Army in the International Military Cross Country
Championship in Brussels in 1952 and earned
national colours for the Athletic Meet in Teheran four years later.
This long distance
runner excelled in the 3000 meters steeplechase apart from winning lanrels in
5000 and 10000 meters. In the 1962 Asiad he won two gold medals, each in the
then record time. It was not until 1970 that his Asian record was beaten. In
all he won three golds and a silver medal in the Asian Games.
Iqbal’s baptism in
international athletics came in Helsinki’s Olympics
(1952). A man with a gigantic frame, he
had a gold each in the Asiad (1958) and Commonwealth Games (1954) to his credit
and at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics he moved up among the top ten of the world.
His best, however,
came in the 1960 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy Meet where he hurled the hammer to 63.1
meters to create an Asian record. His record at the national level stood for 32
years only to be broken by none other than his own son Aqarab at the 24th
Nationals.
From 1948 – when
the Quaid-e-Azam inaugurated the First Pakistan Olympics – to 1993, Pakistan athletics have
gone a long way of 45 years but, unfortunately, only a brief period from 1954
to 1960 can rightly be termed as the glorious one in Pakistan athletics history
with the Tokyo Asian Games (1958) its peak point.
In Tokyo, Pakistan won 13 medals (5
gold, 4 silver, 4 bronze) not to be compared with the 19 medals won at the 1992
SAF Games.
Sadly enough, today
we are more concerned about winning medals at the SAF Games only to beat
countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. With the present
state of affairs one can not think of winning a medal at the Olympics but at
least dream for the glory of the days of Khaliq, Raziq and Iqbal.
Performances of Pakistan athletes (from
1954 to 1960)Read as competition, gold, silver, bronze, remarks
1.2nd
Asian Games, Manila, 1954 4, 4, 0, all
gold medals in Asian records
2. Commonwealth
Games, Vancouver, 1954 4, 1, 1 one Commonwealth
record broken
3. Indo-Pak Dual Meet, New Delhi, 1956 Not
available, two Asian record
4. National Championship, Lahore 1956 -,-,-,
four Asian records
5. Athletics Training Programme, England, 1956 -,-,-, new British Empire record in Javelin
Throw
6. National Championship, Peshawar, 1958 -,-,-, three Asian records surpassed
7. 3rd Asiad, Tokyo, 1958 5, 4, 4, -
8. Commonwealth Games Cardiff, 1958 0,2,2 –
9. Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Dhaka 1960 -,-,-, three
Asian records
10. Olympic Games, Rome, 1960 -,-,-, one
athlete finished among top ten of the world.
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