Islamic Solidarity Games: Pakistan's archers advance to next round

Pakistan's female archers have cruised into the round of 32 by performing brilliantly in the preliminary rounds of the archery competitions in the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games in Konya.

Pakistan's Umm-e-Kulsoom and Kiran Muhammad made it directly to the top 32 based on their better rankings in the preliminary round. Meanwhile, Sadia Mai advanced to the next round by defeating the UAE's Ayesha Al-Ali 7-3 in the first elimination round.

In the preliminary round, Umm-e-Kulsoom stood 17th, Kiran 23rd and Sadia 33rd. Umm-e-Kulsoom secured 560 points, Kiran 532, and Sadia scored 492 in the first round.

In the men's archery event, Nauman Saqib reached the round of 32. He defeated Kazakhstan's archer 6-0 in the elimination round. Meanwhile, Pakistan's Abdul Rehman Hafiz was defeated by Kuwait's Al Harbi Abdullah 6-5 in the first elimination round.

The Islamic Solidarity Games that started on August 9 will continue till August 18, according to the TRT World website. At least 4,000 athletes from 56 Muslim countries are competing in 24 different games while vying for a total of 355 medals.

Before Turkey, the Games had been staged in Saudi Arabia (2005), Iran (2010), Indonesia (2013) and Azerbaijan (2017). The Tehran edition, however, had to be called off following a dispute between Iran and Saudi Arabia.