WAPDA Win 54th National Athletics Championship in Karachi

Pakistan WAPDA have won the 54th National Athletics Championship in Karachi, finishing far clear of the rest of the field with 27 gold medals. The Lakh Sahaita championship, held at the NED University tartan track under the supervision of the Athletics Federation of Pakistan and organised by the Sindh Athletics Association, ended with WAPDA on top of both the men's and the women's standings — a clean sweep of the team titles that underlined just how deep the department's athletics programme now runs.

Pakistan Navy finished second overall with nine gold medals, while the Higher Education Commission (HEC) took third place with eight golds. Behind those headline numbers, though, the championship told a richer story: a 14-year-old national record fell on the final day, Pakistan's fastest man returned from surgery to win a sprint double, and a new generation of young athletes announced itself against the country's established names.

WAPDA dominate both team races

WAPDA's dominance was not built on one discipline. In the men's events they collected 17 gold, five silver and five bronze medals. Pakistan Navy were second in the men's category with five gold, six silver and four bronze, while HEC finished third with two gold, four silver and seven bronze.

The women's competition followed the same pattern. WAPDA won 10 gold, 11 silver and six bronze medals. HEC were second with six gold, seven silver and nine bronze and 260 points, Sindh finished third with one gold, two silver and three bronze and 86 points, and Pakistan Navy were fourth with four gold medals and 73 points.

That breadth matters. A department that wins sprints, distance races, throws and relays is not relying on one star. It is a system working — and in a sport where Pakistan has so often depended on a single famous name, that is arguably the most encouraging part of this championship.

Team	Gold medals	Overall position
WAPDA	27	1st
Pakistan Navy	9	2nd
Higher Education Commission	8	3rd

Maria Bibi breaks a 14-year-old record

The championship's defining moment came on the final day, when WAPDA's Maria Bibi set a new national record in the women's 5,000 metres. She clocked 19 minutes and 2.00 seconds to win gold, breaking the previous record of 19:04.05 set by Olympian Rabia Ashiq back in 2012.

It was a record that had stood for 14 years, and Maria Bibi broke it by just over two seconds — a margin that sounds small until you remember how rarely national records in distance running move at all. WAPDA's Nazia Ehsan claimed silver in 19:49.50, while HEC's Goonish Batool took bronze in 20:10.80, almost a minute behind the new record-holder.

Maria Bibi's week was not a one-race wonder either. Earlier in the championship she had already won the women's 10,000 metres gold in 43 minutes and 35 seconds, ahead of HEC's Gonish Batool, confirming her as the outstanding distance runner of the meeting. Distance running in Pakistan has long lived in the shadow of the sprints and the javelin; a national record like this is a reminder that the depth is growing.

Shajar Abbas: the sprint double after surgery

If Maria Bibi owned the distance events, Shajar Abbas owned the sprints. Pakistan's national record-holder in both the 100 metres and 200 metres opened the championship with a thrilling 100 metres final, crossing the line in 10.20 seconds — just 0.01 seconds ahead of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's 19-year-old Ataullah, with HEC's Haseeb Ahmed third, four-hundredths of a second further back.

Shajar then added the 200 metres title in 20.75 seconds, with Ataullah second again in 20.90 seconds and Haseeb Ahmed third in 21.40 seconds. By the end of the meeting, reports credited Shajar with three gold medals in all — a remarkable return for an athlete who has been recovering from surgery for a tumour in his shin bone and who has spoken openly about still feeling pain during rehabilitation.

His focus, he has said, is on next year's South Asian Games, which Pakistan is scheduled to host, and on winning a medal for the country there. On this form — winning the closest sprint final of the championship and then backing it up over 200 metres — he will arrive at that home Games as one of the faces of the Pakistan team.

The women's sprints had their own familiar winner. WAPDA's Faiqa Riaz successfully defended her 100 metres title in 11.56 seconds, with HEC's Khoula Omer second in 12.22 seconds and Sindh's Iqra Riaz third in 12.24 seconds. In the women's 200 metres, HEC's Khola Umar Khan won gold in 24.80 seconds, Iqra Riaz took silver in 25.05 seconds and WAPDA's Malaika Shehzadi claimed bronze in 26.00 seconds.

Javelin without Arshad — and WAPDA still win it

The championship began with its biggest star in a ceremonial role rather than a competitive one. Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem lit the championship torch at the opening ceremony at NED University, but he withdrew from the javelin throw competition after falling ill, reportedly with gastroenteritis, having been scheduled to compete on the Friday morning.

It was the latest setback in a difficult season for the Olympic gold medallist, who finished fourth at the Asian Games in Nagoya with a season-best 80.29 metres and ninth at the Commonwealth Games. His absence left the javelin wide open — and WAPDA filled it anyway. Muhammad Yasir Sultan won the men's javelin gold with a throw of 74.63 metres, ahead of Navy's Abdul Qadir Khan with 67.25 metres and HEC's Muhammad Bilal with 66.69 metres.

In the women's javelin, WAPDA's Fatima Hussain claimed gold with 41.76 metres, Punjab's Sania Ejaz won silver with 41.59 metres and HEC's Khadija Mehrin earned bronze with 40.43 metres. The message was the same as in the sprints and the distance races: WAPDA's strength runs through the whole programme, not just one event.

Field events, relays and a four-gold star

The field events spread the medals around, even as WAPDA kept collecting them. WAPDA's Zohaib Khan won the men's shot put, Usman Zafar took the men's triple jump with 15.39 metres ahead of Navy's Ansar Abbas at 15.29 metres, and Dawood led a WAPDA one-two in the men's hammer throw with 52.45 metres, team-mate Azhar Abbas second at 51.01 metres. In the women's hammer, WAPDA's Uzma Azam won with 41.82 metres.

Pakistan Navy's Usman Ghani won the men's high jump at 1.96 metres, while WAPDA's Amina won the women's pole vault at 2.85 metres. On the track, WAPDA's Shahsawar won the men's 800 metres in 1:52.01 and Sohail Amir won the men's 5,000 metres in 15:16.20, with Punjab's Muhammad Zain second and Navy's Ali Hassan third.

The relays produced the meeting's quirkiest finish. Pakistan Navy won the men's 4x100 metres relay in 42.00 seconds, with HEC second in 42.05 seconds and Punjab third in 43.28 seconds, while WAPDA won the women's 4x100 metres relay in 48.63 seconds. In the closing men's 4x400 metres relay, WAPDA won gold in 3:15.90 — and Navy and Punjab both recorded exactly 3:20.50, so both teams were awarded silver medals and no bronze was given.

Among the individual stars, Navy's Amtul Rehman stood out. She won four gold medals across the championship, including the women's heptathlon with 3,608 points, the triple jump at 11.77 metres, the long jump at 5.54 metres and the high jump at 1.55 metres — a range across jumps and combined events that few athletes anywhere attempt, let alone win.

What this championship means

It is tempting to read a national championship as just a medal table. This one deserves a closer look. First, it was a genuinely national event: teams from the provinces, the departments, HEC and the services competed across four days in Karachi, with Rs9 million in prize money for medal-winning athletes — a meaningful sum in a sport where most athletes compete for far less than cricketers earn.

Second, the next generation showed up. Ataullah, at 19, pushed the national record-holder to one-hundredth of a second in the 100 metres final and has already represented Pakistan at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships. That kind of near-miss is often the moment a young sprinter stops being a prospect and starts being a rival.

Third, the records moved. Maria Bibi's 5,000 metres mark is the sort of performance that resets what young distance runners in Pakistan believe is possible. Records that stand for 14 years can start to feel untouchable; breaking one, by a WAPDA athlete who also won the 10,000 metres, gives the whole distance-running community a new target.

And finally, there is the Arshad question — not as criticism of one athlete, but as a challenge for the system around him. Pakistan's Olympic champion lit the torch and then watched the javelin from the sidelines, ill, after a season of injuries and disappointing results. The championship still produced a javelin winner, a sprint double, a national record and a four-gold multi-event star. That depth is real progress. The next step is turning national-championship depth into international medals — starting with the South Asian Games on home soil next year, where Shajar Abbas, Maria Bibi and this new generation will be expected to deliver.

For now, though, the verdict from Karachi is clear: WAPDA are Pakistan's athletics powerhouse, and the 54th National Athletics Championship was theirs from the first sprint final to the last relay.

Sources: The News, PK SportsLink, Geo Super, Daily Metro Time. Photos are illustrative copyright-free athletics images from Wikimedia Commons, credited below, and are not photographs from the Karachi championship.

Image credits: Sprint race — Wikimedia Commons, "100 m Memorial Van Damme 2010"; Javelin throw — Wikimedia Commons, "Javelin throw in tetradecathlon"; Distance running — Wikimedia Commons, "2007 Treviso Marathon". All used under free licences.