KABUL (SW): Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani joined President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and a number of heads of state and government in Ashgabat for the opening ceremony of the 2017 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games late on Sunday.
Afghanistan’s national squad of more than 200 athletes was the first to march through the stadium during this ceremony. On the second day of the games, 22 Afghan athletes would compete in three different discipline for medals.
Five members of the taekwondo squad would compete in different weight categories. Khadeja Rezai would take on her Chinese counterpart in the 46kg category, Farah Naz would face Indian rival in the same category, Bilal Zazai would compete against his own countryman Waheedullah in the 56kg category and Hameedullah Niazi would fight it out with his opponent from Laos in the 74kg category.
On the other end, Mehdi Ibrahimi is scheduled to face his opponent from the Philippines in the 77kg Ju Jitso. Nazar Razai would face his rival from Tajikistan in the same discipline’s 85kg category while Mehdi Wakili would be competing against athlete from Jordan in the 69kg category. Abdul Hameed is scheduled to face his opponent from the UAE in the 69kg category, Tahera Sultani to face opponent from Thailand and Ahmad Shah would face his competitor from Pakistan in the 94kg category.
In traditional wrestling, Bashir Ahmad was scheduled to take on his opponent from Tajikistan in the 90kg category, Abdul Shafi was scheduled to face rival from Tajikistan in the 68kg category while Jawed Ahmad was to compete against wrestler from Uzbekistan in the 90kg category, Walid Noorzay against wrestler from Tajikistan in the 90kg category, Hakeemullah Hakimi against wrestler from Kyrgyzstan in the 100kg category, Syed Gul against wrestler from Tajikistan in the 100kg category, Nadir Sufizada against wrestler from Tajikistan in the 100kg category, Hekmatullah Fanos against wrestler from Kazakhstan in the 82kg category, Mohammad Pahlawanzada in 100kg category against wrestler from Indonesia and Ali Ahmad against wrestler from Pakistan in the 75kg category.
Afghanistan’s futsal team was scheduled to take on Maldives on Monday after a humiliating 1-6 defeat against China. Afghanistan stands sixth on the medal table with a gold and a silver medal.
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