Two squash players Abdullah Zaman and Ahmed Ali Naz — exhibited Pakistan’s shining potential during the Qatar Junior Squash Championship which concluded in Doha on Thursday.

Pakistan’s Abdullah Zaman and Ahmed Ali Naz secured silver medals after losing in the finals of the U15 and U11 categories, respectively. Meanwhile, Rayyan Zaman, Abdullah’s younger brother, lost in the semis of the U11 event.

It must be noted that Abdullah and Rayyan are sons of former player Mansoor Zaman and grandsons of the legendary Qamar Zaman.

“We are delighted to share that three of our most talented players from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa boys have made a mark in the Qatar Junior Squash Championship held in Doha,” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Squash Association said in a statement.

“Abdullah Zaman, the grandson of the legendary Qamar Zaman, performed exceptionally well in the Boys Under-15 age category and won the silver medal. His skills and techniques left the audience spellbound, and he proved to be a formidable opponent for his competitors.

“Similarly, Ahmed Ali Naz, in the Boys Under-11 age category, proved his mettle and emerged victorious. His agility, quick reflexes, and on-court strategies were impressive, and he displayed great sportsmanship throughout the tournament.

“The championship was highly competitive, with players from all over the world participating. However, our players showed their talent and proved that they are among the best in their respective age categories. We are proud of their excellent performance, and we congratulate them on their well-deserved win.” 

KARACHI: West Indies rode on yet another century by skipper Hayley Matthews to win the third women’s One-day International and secure a 3-0 clean sweep over Pakistan here at the National Bank Stadium on Tuesday.

Matthews, who had also scored a hundred n the first one-dayer, smashed 141 off 149 balls with the help of 19 boundaries to help the visitors post 278-6.

The target proved to be a mammoth task to overcome for Pakistan, who were bundled out for 190, with Muneeba Ali their top-scorer with 38.

The defeat dealt a major blow on Pakistan’s pursuit for direct qualification in next year’s Women’s World Cup, with the national side placed fifth in the ICC Women’s Championship table with not many games to turn their fate around.

After winning the toss and opting to bat first, West Indies lost opener Rashada Williams early, but her dismissal was followed by her opening partner Matthews knitting a 93-run partnership with first-drop Shemaine Campbelle.

After Campbelle departed with 38 against her name, Matthews went on to put up a 111-run stand for the third wicket with Stafanie Taylor, who hit four boundaries for her 47 runs.

Aaliyah Alleyne smashed 20 off just 12 — her innings studded with three boundaries — to help the Caribbean side further consolidate their position in the match.

Spinner Nashra Sandhu was Pakistan’s best bowler with figures of 3-54 in her quota of 10 overs.

Pakistan, in response, never got going and kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

They lost their first wicket in opener Sadaf Shamas as early as in the sixth over and were reeling at 84-4 by the 23rd with both veterans Nida Dar and Bismah Maroof back in the hut without making any meaningful impact.

After Muneeba, veteran batter Aliya Riaz’s 36 runs and Fatima Sana’s 44-ball stay for 23 runs somewhat delayed Pakistan’s whitewash as the West Indies bowled with eight bowlers. Each of them took at least one wicket, with Matthews, Alleyne and Taylor taking two scalps each.

The ODI series will be followed by five T20Is starting from April 26 .

In a concerning development for the Pakistan cricket team, Mohammad Rizwan's availability for the remaining matches of the ongoing T20I series against New Zealand is in doubt due to the wicket-keeper batsman's hamstring injury.

Rizwan, a key top-order player for the national side, suffered the injury during the third T20I against the Black Caps in Rawalpindi on Sunday wherein he whizzed past Virat Kohli and Babar Azam's records by scoring the fastest 3,000 runs in T20 International cricket while featuring in his 79th T20I innings.

The team management might reach any decision over the right-handed batter's availability today after reviewing his scans.

The development comes after Green Shirts' wicket-keeper batsman Azam Khan was ruled out of the NZ series after experiencing discomfort in his right calf during a practice session.

According to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the cricketer was advised to undertake a 10-day rest following radiology reports confirming a Grade One tear of his right calf muscle.

It must be noted that New Zealand made a stunning comeback in the five-match T20I series courtesy of Mark Chapman who led the visitors to victory in the third T20I match played on Sunday.

The series is now levelled at 1-1 with two remaining matches set to be played in Lahore on April 25 and 27.

Before that, the national side thrashed visitors in the second T20I to secure seven-wicket on April 20 after the Black Caps were bowled out for just 90 runs in 18.1 overs.

The first match of the series was washed out due to rain.

Ahead of a Karate Combat 45 clash between arch-rivals in Dubai on (Saturday), Pakistan captain Shahzaib Rindh slapped India’s skipper Rana Singh.

The video of the incident went viral on social media wherein Rindh can be seen slapping Rana while on stage during a press conference on Friday. 

"How was the slap bro?" Rindh said after the clash on stage.

It must be noted that Rindh created history in February earlier this year after he registered the fastest knockout at Karate Combat 44 in Mexico City. The 25-year-old stunned his opponent, Marco Cubas of Peru, with a knockout in 21 seconds during the first round.

The Karate Combat, the world’s premier full-contact karate league, event in Dubai will be hosted by former mixed martial artists Bas Rutten and George St Pierre, YouTuber Mike Majlak and renowned Indian actor Salman Khan.

The fight night will begin with Pit Submission series featuring Craig Jones vs Andre Muniz.

The co-main event will include the Bantamweight title fight between Luiz Rocha vs Myrza-Bek Tebuev.

Meanwhile, Luke Rockhold and Joe Schilling go head-to-head in the main event.

Main Event
Luke Rockhold vs Joe Schilling

Co-Main Event | Double Champ Fight

Luiz Rocha vs Myrza-Bek TeBuev

Karate vs Muay Thai

Eddie Farrell vs Raymond Daniels

Vitalii Dubina vs Edgar Skrivers

Yodkaikaew “Y2K” Fairtex vs Saidyokub Kakhramonv

India vs Pakistan
Rana Singh vs Shahzaib Rindh

Himanshu Kaushik vs Uloomi Karim

Pawan Gupta vs Rizwan Ali

Prelims
Adam Noi vs Ali Motamed

Huang Shuai Lu vs Ali Zainfar

Pit Submission Series - Grappling:

Craig Jones vs Rinat Fakhretdinov

Kaynan Duarte vs Pouya Rahmani

Zayed Alkatheeri vs Osamah Almarwai

The Paris 2024 Olympic torch was lit on Tuesday in a traditional manner during an impressing ceremony for the games slated to begin from July 26 this year.

The role of high priestess was played by Greek actress Mary Mina, who lit the torch using a backup flame instead of a parabolic mirror that is normally used, due to cloudy skies, for the start of a relay in Greece and France.

It will end with the lighting of the Olympic flame in Paris at the opening ceremony.

The French capital has bagged the rights to host the summer Olympics for a third time after 1900 and 1924.

"In these difficult times we are living through, with wars and conflicts on the rise, people are fed up with all the hate, the aggression and negative news they are facing day in and day out," International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach said in his speech.

"We are longing for something which brings us together, something that is unifying, something that gives us hope. The Olympic flame that we are lighting today is the symbol of this hope."

The torch of the first runner of the relay, Greece's Olympic rowing champion Stefanos Ntouskos, was then lit by Mina.

Ntouskos then handed the flame, after a short run, to France's three-time Olympic medallist in swimming and head of Paris' Olympic torch relay, Laure Manaudou, as the representative of the host city.

The flame will be officially handed over to Paris Games organisers in Athens' Panathenaic stadium, venue of the first modern Games in 1896, on April 26 after an 11-day relay across Greece.

It will then depart the next day for France on board a three-masted ship, the ‘Belem’ where it will arrive on May 8 in Marseille, with up to 150,000 people expected to attend the ceremony in the southern city's Old Port.

Marseille, founded by the Greek settlers of Phocaea around 600BC, will host the sailing competitions.

The French torch relay will continue for 68 days and will conclude in Paris with the lighting of the Olympic flame on July 26.

GENEVA: Friba Rezayee, the first woman to represent Afghanistan at the Olympics, has been appalled by the treatment of women since the resurgence of the Taliban and is now campaigning for the country to be kept out of the Paris Games.

Rezayee, a judoka who competed at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, has called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Afghanistan due to the Taliban’s human rights record. She has argued that under such a ban, Afghan women should still be allowed to participate as part of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.

“Given tons and tons of evidence about the Taliban, about their brutal treatment of women and children, they are very dangerous,” Rezayee, who now lives in Vancouver, told Reuters. “If the IOC allows them to enter the Olympics at the heart of Europe, in Paris in 2024, it’s very dangerous for the people.”

Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban administration, declined to comment.

Judoka feels whatever she did to support women’s rights has been undone by International Olympic Committee

The Taliban — who say they respect women’s rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law and local customs — have closed girls’ high schools and placed travel restrictions on women without a male guardian and restricted access to parks and gyms.

Asked to comment on Rezayee’s call, the IOC referred to a statement made last month by James Macleod, its Director of National Olympic Committee Relations and Olympic Solidarity.

Macleod said at the time that the IOC was in dialogue with Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) and sport authorities “with the aim to reverse the current restrictions on access to sport for women and young girls in Afghanistan.” He said that although the IOC acknowledged different views on whether Afghanistan’s NOC should be suspended, it “doesn’t believe that isolation of the Afghan sporting community at this time is the right approach.”

Separately, the IOC said that athletes needed a refugee status confirmed by the United Nations refugee agency to be eligible for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.

‘Stronger than men with guns’

Rezayee was 18 when she stepped onto the mat in Athens in a historic moment for her country. She was convinced her pioneering role would help advance women’s rights. “I actually believed that we would only progress from here,” she said.

“When I returned from Athens, I stayed in Afghanistan and I wanted to stay in Afghanistan. I continued my training because I saw the important changes it was making in every single girl’s life.” But her hopes of seeing her countrywomen gain more rights were crushed when the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

“It feels like whatever I did to support women’s rights and gender equality back in 2004, it has been all undone by the IOC and by the Taliban and people who tolerate the Taliban,” Rezayee said.

In February, a UN expert described the Taliban’s disrespect for the rights of women and girls as “unparalleled in the world,” and said their takeover had “exacerbated a high prevalence of gender-based violence against women and girls.”

The IOC suspended Afghanistan’s NOC in 1999.