Pakistanis deprived of records after technical error at Islamic Solidarity Games

KARACHI: Pakistan Shajar Abbas was deprived of two national records he created during the ongoing Islamic Solidarity Games after the organisers of the event said that the results of the first three days of events shall be invalid due to a technical error detected on day 4.

Abbas had created new national records in 100 metres by clocking 10.25 seconds and in 200 metres by clocking 20.68 seconds, but these are now invalid.

Mueed Baloch’s personal best record in 200 metres has also been overruled.

A notification issued by the organisers recorded is invalid and cannot be used for ranking or any kind of record.

“A technical failure on the cabling of the starting system was discovered by the relevant international officials in the morning of day 4," the notification read.

"Considering all the evidence, and after conferring with national and international experts, we concluded that it was not possible to confirm the full accuracy of the result of races for all the first 3 competition days,” the notification added.

“As technical delegates, it is our responsibility to recommend to the relevant governing body (World Athletics) concerning the validity of results of all races for the first 3 competition days, that these mentioned results are invalid and cannot be used for world rankings or any kind of records,” it added.

However, this discovery will not influence any positions or medals of the athletes during Islamic Games.

The organisers have also added that a new technical system was put in place to bypass the failure on day 4 of the competitions.