ABDUL KHALIQ PUTS THE TRACK ON FIRE
1956 Melbourne In a big Pakistan contingent of 62 men in eight sports, one up on the last two occasions, there were as many as 19 track and field representatives -- one more than the hockey players. And it was the 23-year-old Pakistan Army sprinter Abdul Khaliq who really stood out.
Unlike the 1952 Olympiad, where the Pakistani sportsmen still hadn't had much top-level international exposure, the 1956 team had been to several competitions in many parts of the world in the previous four years.
At the 1954 Asian Games in Manila, Philippines -- Pakistan's first -- the country's athletes won four gold and four silver medals.
Abdul Khaliq was dubbed the 'fastest man in Asia' when he ran the 100 metres race in a new Asian record of 10.6 seconds. Mohammad Sharif Butt (21.9sec in 200 metres), Mirza Khan (54.1sec in 400 metres hurdles) and Mohammad Nawaz (210ft 10-1/8in in javelin throw) also won gold medals and created new Asian records.
Mohammad Aslam (200 metres), Jalal Khan (javelin throw), Pakistan's 4x100 metres relay team and hammer thrower Mohammad Iqbal all won silver medals.
At the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada, Iqbal won gold in the hammer throw event while Nawaz and Jalal took silver and bronze, respectively, in the javelin throw. Sharif Butt, however, lost in both his 100 yards dash and 220 yards dash semifinals while Khaliq too reached the 100 yards dash semifinals before bowing out.
But the athletes had worked very hard in different parts of the world since 1952. Most of them were militarymen, so they got to participate in the International Military Athletics Meet in Athens, Greece, in 1955. The first Indo-Pakistan Athletics Meet was held in New Delhi in March 1956, where the highlight was Khaliq's sprint double. He created new Asian records in both the 100 and 200 metres events.
Pakistan athletes then went to Berlin for the Military Championship in 1956 and later took part in several meets in England during the same year. Later, before going to the Olympiad, they also featured in an athletics meet in Teheran on the occasion of the Birthday Celebrations of the Shah of Iran.
Most Pakistan athletes disappointed in Melbourne, including the sprinter Mohammad Sharif Butt, who was featuring in his third consecutive Olympiad. It was first-timer Abdul Khaliq who stole the show, however.
In the 100 metres event, Khaliq was second out of five runners in his first round heat with a time of 10.8 seconds. In the second round heat, he ran in with a time of 10.5 seconds and was again second. In the semifinals, he was pushed to fourth place among six participants and lost the chance for a medal.
Sixty-eight competitors in the 200 metres were divided into twelve heats, one heat being a walkover. Khaliq produced the best first round time of 21.1 seconds. He again ran in the same time in the second round, breasting the tape ahead of the others, and with Michael Agostini (Trinidad) and Andy Stanfield (USA) all with similar time headed the second round.
Khaliq, however, could not produce the same form in the first semifinal and was eliminated.
The strength of the USA trio was shown in the semifinals, and in the final all ran inside 21 seconds. Bobby Morrow, in clocking 20.6 second, broke Jesse Owens's (1936) and Stanfield's (1952) joint record of 20.7 seconds.
Owens was watching from the Press Stand and Stanfield equalled his record in running second. USA with the first three placings, repeated their Helsinki success and Morrow was the first American since Owens to win both the 100 and 200 metres.
http://www.geosuper.tv/articles.asp?id=336
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