Pakistan maintain winning runs in hockey, kabaddi at Asian Games; soft tennis, fencing teams falter

Pakistan's hockey and kabaddi teams showcased their prowess at the Asian Games on Tuesday, while the country's fencing and soft tennis athletes faced a tough day. In Pool B hockey, Pakistan secured a 5-1 victory over Uzbekistan at the Gifu Prefectural Green Stadium. Mohammad Ammad opened the scoring in the 18th minute, followed by Shokhrukhbek Salimjonov's penalty corner goal in the 30th minute.

Sufyan Khan and Abdul Rehman added to the lead in the subsequent minutes. Pakistan will face China in their next match. In kabaddi, Pakistan maintained their winning streak with a 58-43 triumph over Nepal in Group B at the Tokai Citizen Gymnasium. Led by captain Mudassar Ali, Pakistan led by 30-17 at halftime, but Nepal fought back in the second half.

Pakistan's defence forced six all-outs, and their raiders scored eight bonus points, with a total of 44 outs. In fencing, Pakistan's Baryal Khan and Mohammed Yaseen Khan both suffered losses in the men's foil individual events. Baryal fell to India's Sachin 5-0 and then to South Korea's Jeonghyun Youn 5-1. Yaseen, 18, lost all his five bouts to Kazakhstan's Timofey Semyonov, South Korea's Kwanghyun Lee, Oman's Ahmed Keskes, and China's Zhaoran Zheng, managing a single point in his competitive bout.

Eraj Zaidi and Kainaat Shallwani, representing Pakistan in soft tennis, both lost their matches 4-0, while Mohammad Ali and Hussain Arain also fared poorly in the men's singles event. Pakistan's Usman Khan secured 19th place in the individual eventing dressage phase with a score of 36.70 penalties (63.33 per cent) at Nagoya City Higashiyama Park Tennis Centre.