Naseem vows to do even better in future

By Alam Zeb Safi

KARACHI: Golden girl Naseem Hameed was given a rousing welcome here at the Jinnah International Airport on her arrival from Dhaka on Thursday, where she won gold medal in the 100 metre sprint of the athletics competition of the 11th South Asian Games.

Naseem, who exuded her career-best feat by recording a timing of 11.81 seconds, few fractions less than the Asian record, was garlanded in an environment flooded with fans, her relatives, media and top sports officials of the region.




She left for Dhaka as an ordinary, poor athlete from the slums of Korangi but returned as a queen of South Asia. Very few players in the history of Pakistan would have received such an amazing reception.




Naseem did not expect such a welcome, which might strengthened her resolve to perform even better in future."Though, I did expect a welcome on my arrival after extending a good performance in Dhaka but in reality what I saw here was something different and more than my expectations and for this I am very thankful to all, including media," the 23-year old athlete said.




"I had left for Dhaka to perform better but what God bestowed on me is more than my aspirations and I am at a loss for words when it comes to express my happiness," she said. In the 12-day eight-nation event, the performance of the Pakistani athletes was impressive as the country grabbed four gold, two silver, and four bronze medals.




Naseem, who was also the part of the 4x100m relay team, which won a bronze medal in the previous South Asian Games held in Colombo in 2006, said that her coaches, parents, particularly her mother, her department Army and the secretary of the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) Khalid Mehmood had a big hand in shaping her career.




"Only efforts are meaningless, if they are not properly supported," Naseem, who became the third Pakistani woman to have claimed a gold medal in athletics in the 26-year long history of the South Asian Games and the first to do so in 100m sprint, said.




When she was asked about how she will feel now while passing through the streets of Karachi, Naseem said, "It would be different now altogether. Before this no one knew me and even did not give me any lift but now it would be something different and I would feel proud of it."




Recalling her feelings when she entered the final, she said that the win in the semifinals boosted her morale and she had made up her mind that she would try to improve her timing in the final. Nonetheless, God blessed her with the title, a blessing.




She said that the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games are ahead and though she does not claim to win gold medal in these competitions but she would try her level best to improve her timing.




To a query Naseem said that after getting sixth position in her event in the 2006 Colombo South Asian Games, pressure mounted on her but she thought if other athletes could achieve distinction in their events through hard work, then why can't she.




"I never lost my courage, in my life," she said. Meanwhile, the president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari also congratulated the "woman sprinter of the region" and said that Naseem is a role model for the Pakistani women. Rs500,000 have been announced by the Federal Sports Ministry, Rs200,000 by Karachi Nazim Mustafa Kamal and Rs100,000 by the AFP for the amazing lady.




KARACHI: Pakistan's Naseem Hameed gets a warm welcome here on Thursday on her arrival from Dhaka where she won the 100-metre gold in the South Asian Games -The News photo