Ijaz Rashid
PESHAWAR: National champion Murad Ali, Irfan Saeed, Muhammad Ali, Anjum Bashir in Men’s singles and Mahur Shehzad, Palwasha Bashir, Alja Tariq and Ghazala Siddique in Women singles qualified for the semi-finals of the 58th National Senior Badminton Championship being played here at Abdul Wali Khan Sports Complex Charsadda on Saturday.
In the Men’s singles quarter-finals, Murad Ali of NBP defeated Raja Muhammad Hasnain of NBP 21-15, 21-10, Irfan Saeed of WAPDA defeated Muqit Tahir of SNGPL 21-15, 21-12. In other quarter-finals Mohammad Ali Larush of WAPDA defeated Hashir Bashir of WAPDA 21-18, 21-15, Anjum Bashir of NBP defeated Azeem Sarwar of WAPDA 21-16, 21-18.
In the Women singles quarter-finals Mahur Shehzad of WAPDA defeated SNGPL’s Zubaira Islam 21-6, 21-9, NBP’s Palwasha Bashir defeated WAPDA’s Bashari Qayyum 21-10, 21-15, Balochistan’s Alja Tariq defeated Sindh’s Amara Ishtiaq 21-6, 21-13 and Ghazala Siddiqui of WAPDA defeated Mahosh Khan of Army 21-18 and 21-6 to qualify for the semi-finals.
In the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals, Ammar Masood of Railways and Mutaib Sohail of KRL defeated Khalil-ur-Rehman and Fazlur Rehman of Railways 21-18, 21-12, Raja Hasnain of NBP and Raja Zulqarnain of WAPDA defeated SNGP’s Ahmed Tariq and WAPDA’s Faizan Ahmed 21-11, 21-12, SNGPL’s Muqit Tahir and NBP’s Kashif Silhari defeated HEC’s Abu Dharr Rashid and WAPDA’s Omar Zeeshan 21-16. 21-13, Wapda’s Hashir Bashir and NBP’s Murad Ali defeated Islamabad’s Ali Chishti and Wapda’s Shujaat Ali Khan 21-15, 21-17.
In other matches Wapda’s Waqas Ahmed and Shoaib Riaz defeated SNGPL’s Muhammad Noman and Amir Saeed of WAPDA won 19-21, 21-13, 21-8, Owais Zahid of WAPDA and Murad Ali of NBP defeated Shah Mir Iftikhar of SNGPL and Ali Nawab Dil of WAPDA 22-2. 20, 21-17, Irfan Saeed and Azeem Sarwar of WAPDA defeated Zonin Javed and Atiq Chaudhry of WAPDA 21-17 and 21-14 to reach the quarter-finals.
Muhammad Shoaib Khan DPO Chrsadda was the chief guest. Wajid Ali Chaudhry, Secretary Pakistan Badminton Federation, presented the shield to the chief guest and thanked him for visiting the venue and busted the morale of the players. He also appreciates the effort of DPO for providing the full proof security of the venue and players.