For the First Time in 40 Years Pakistan Fails to Win Any Medal at Asian Squash Championship

Pakistan was a formidable power in squash on a global level until a few decades ago. Although it lost its global dominance, the country continued to be a force to be reckoned with in Asia as it won several championships at this stage.

However, it seems that its glory days at this level are now over as well because Pakistan has failed to clinch a single medal in the Asian Team Squash Championship for the first time ever.

According to details, Japan edged past Pakistan by 2-1 in the last pool match of the tournament being held in Malaysia, ending all hopes of getting a medal.

Pakistan’s Nasir Iqbal defeated Japan’s Tomotaka Endo while Japan’s Ryosei Kobayashi and Ryunosuke Tsukue eased past Pakistan’s Tayyab Aslam and Ammaad Fareed, respectively, in the other two matches.

Earlier, Pakistan also lost 2-1 to India. India’s Saurav Ghosal and Ramit Tandon beat Pakistan’s Tayyab Aslam and Muhammad Asim while India’s Mahesh Mangaonkar lost to Pakistan’s Nasir Iqbal.

Both India and Japan have also booked their places in the semi-finals of the 20^th Asian Team Squash Championship.

In the previous 19 editions of the tournament, Pakistan won 15 Gold, 3 Silver, and 1 Bronze medal, which shows the magnitude of the hegemony the country enjoyed in the tournament.

This time, however, Pakistan only dominated weaker teams like Iraq, the Philippines, and Indonesia, which obviously wasn’t enough to put it through the final four.

Pakistan will now face Iran later today for 5th-8th position. It is worth noting here that Pakistan has never played for a place below the 4^th spot in the history of the Asian Team Squash Championship.

Expressing disappointment over the lackluster performances of Pakistani players, former squash world champion, Jehangir Khan, said that Pakistan used to teach squash to Japan once.

However, the state of squash in the country is so abysmal that Japan is dominating Pakistan, lamented Jehangir Khan, adding that it is now clear that the incumbent management of the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) is least interested in improving the country’s squash.