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Sunday, 27 March 2011

Cycling In Pakistan

After the creation of Pakistan, the first National Cycling Championship was held in 1948 at the time of Pakistan's first Olympic Games at Karachi which were declared open by Quaid-i- Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Aftab Farrukh, Wazir Ali and Naqi Mallick emerged as first national champions in sprint and time trials. G.H.Baloch, A.R.Baloch, Salim Farooqi, Merai Din, Mohammad Ashiq and Mohammad Hafeez in due course of time became the national champions.


Cycling has not been able to make much progress because there is only one velodrome, constructed near the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore many years ago, which too is not in proper shape. This hampers in organising the sprint and time trial events. However, much headway has been made in the road race cycling. The most heartening feature is the 'Tour de Pakistan" cycle race, which is held every year. The participants pedal their way from Quetta to Peshawar. The cyclists like Masood Sadiq, Nusrat Khan, Muhammad Shafique Cheema have emerged on the national scene through these races. The current winners of Tour de Pakistan are Haroon Rashid and Muhammad Zahid Gulfam.

The current National Champions are Dilsher Ali and Zulfiqar Ali. In the 1st SAARC Cycling Championship held in Colombo (Sri Lanka) in 1999. Haroon Rashid and Dilsher Ali won Gold Medal and Silver Medal respectively. This was the first Gold Medal in international competition.

One of the national level cycling events is the Champion of Hills Cycle Race, from Rawalpindi to Murree (Hilly Track), which is our regular feature, Murad Ali is the three-time winner of this event.

In compliance with the directive of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) / NOC Pakistan. Women Cycling has been introduced in Pakistan. With the passage of time. Women Cycling has achieved encouraging results and two National Championships have so far been organized National Women Cycling Championship is organized regularly and Miss Raheela Bano has emerged on the national scene through this championship. Raheela Bano and Misbah Mushtaq are the best Women Rider, who have shown outstanding performance in the 1st Indo - Pak Punjab Games held at Patiala (India) from 5th to 11th December, 2004.

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