Sprinter Shajar Abbas breaks record at Islamic Solidarity Games

Pakistan’s fastest sprinter Shajar Abbas has broken his own record during the ongoing Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya, Turkey.

He clocked 10.25 seconds during the 100m heat on Monday, which was better than his previous best of 10.38 at the Commonwealth Games 2022.

Abbas had touched down in Turkey only a few hours ago, which makes his feat even more commendable since he had very little recovery time.

Shajar Abbas breaks his own record in 100m by clocking 10.25 seconds during the heats at the Islamic Solidarity Games 👏👏🇵🇰

His previous best was 10.38 at Commonwealth Games. pic.twitter.com/0orVOksrbq

— Muneeb Farrukh (@Muneeb313_) August 8, 2022

He is also the first Pakistani sprinter ever to qualify for the final of the men’s 200m in the Commonwealth Games. Abbas finished in the last place, eighth, in the final on Saturday while clocking 21.16 seconds.

Earlier, Abbas had missed out on the 100m semi-finals by the barest of margins in the ongoing Commonwealth Games. He clocked 10.38 seconds and finished in fourth place in men’s 100m heat. 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.

It must be noted that Abbas was without his coach, Rana Sajjad, and physio during the Commonwealth Games and the Islamic Solidarity Games.

The Kasur-born won a gold medal during the 100m race in Qosanov Memorial Athletics Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, earlier this year. He also bagged a gold in the 200m race of the Imam Reza Athletics Championship in Iran in May.