Pakistan's Olympics delegation to return home empty-handed

Pakistan's Olympics dream ended when athlete Najma Parveen exited the competition after failing to qualify for the main round of women’s 200m race on Monday. She finished at the 70th spot out of 72 athletes.

Najma was the last ray of hope for the country after all other six athletes from Pakistan's meager seven-member contingent failed to advance in Rio Olympics.

Earlier, Judoka Shah Hussain Shah on whom the nation had pinned hopes for a medal was defeated by Ukrainian Artem Bloshenko in the second round of men’s 100kg Judo event.

Minhal Sohail, the first ever Pakistani female shooter to compete in the Olympics, was also eliminated from the games after she finished 28th out of 51 in 10m distance shooting competition.

Swimmer Haris Bandey had finished last among 50 participants who took part in the men’s 400m freestyle competitions.

Pakistan's top swimmer Lianna Swan had finished 64th out of 88 swimmers in the 50m freestyle heats last Friday.

Athlete Mehboob Ali, who a few months back had equalled national record in the 400m race with a timing of 46.75, clocked 48.37 seconds to end 46th out of 53 athletes at Rio Olympics.

Pakistan's flag bearer and shooter Ghulam Mustafa Bashir had also failed to qualify for the finals when he fell well short of the qualification score in the 25m rapid fire pistol competitions.

Pakistan has not won an Olympics medal for 24 years now.

The country's contingent at the Rio Olympics was also the smallest ever in its history. There were more officials in the contingent than athletes — 17 officials compared to just seven athletes.

This was also the first time Pakistan's hockey team failed to qualify for the Olympics.