KARACHI: Pakistan’s sprinter Shajar Abbas failed to qualify for the final of the 100m event in the ongoing Asian Athletics Championship on Friday in Bangkok, Thailand.
Abbas finished in fourth place, clocking 10.45 seconds, during his heat. He could have qualified for the final if he had repeated his personal best of 10.37 seconds, since the last athlete who qualified for the next round had a time of 10.38 seconds.
Eight players — the top two of each semi-final heat along with the next two best finishers — qualified for the final.
The final race will also be played on Friday evening.
Earlier, Abbas on Thursday qualified for the semi-finals of the 100m event after clocking 10.37 seconds during the heat and ended up in third place. He was 9th among 40 athletes who took part in various heats.
Abbas also broke his own national record, since his latest result was better than the 10.38 seconds he set at the Commonwealth Games last year.
Though the Pakistani sprinter ran 100m in 10.25s in Islamic Solidarity Games as well but global athletics body had disqualified all the timings recorded at the event in Turkey due to irregular measurements.
Apart from Abbas, the Pakistan team in the event comprises javelin thrower Mohammad Yasir Sultan (WAPDA) and sprinters Abdul Moeed (PAF) and Esha Imran (WAPDA).
Coach Rana Sajjad is accompanying the team to provide guidance and support making sure that the athletes are performing up to their best.
Faizan Lakhani Faizan Lakhani is Deputy Editor (Sports) at Geo News.