Sprinter Shajar Abbas achieves unique feat at Commonwealth Games

Pakistan’s sprinter Shajar Abbas has achieved a unique feat at the ongoing Commonwealth Games.

On Friday, he became the first Pakistani sprinter ever to qualify for the final of the men’s 200m competition.

Abbas clocked 20.89 seconds in the first semi-final, which was enough for him to make the cut for the final.

Earlier, Abbas had missed out on the 100m semi-finals by the barest of margins couple of day back.

He equaled his personal best, 10.38 seconds, and finished in fourth place in men’s 100m heat on Tuesday.

The cut off time for the qualification, apart from the top two in each heat, was 10.37 seconds which meant that Abbas missed out by only 0.01 seconds.

The Kasur-born was one of Pakistan’s medal hopefuls during the Commonwealth Games. He won a gold medal during the 100m race in last month’s Qosanov Memorial Athletics Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He also bagged a gold in the 200m race of the Imam Reza Athletics Championship in Iran in May.