Pakistan’s Faiqa Riaz set a new national record in the women’s 100 metres at the 23rd Commonwealth Games on Tuesday, even though she failed to qualify for the next round.
Riaz competed in the third heat and clocked 11.64 seconds. The time placed her outside the qualification places for the semi-finals, but it broke the previous national record of 11.81 seconds. That mark had stood since 2010, when Naseem Hameed matched the time first set by Sadaf Siddiqui, a 2008 Olympian, two years earlier.
Pakistan’s Ansar Abbas also exited the Games in the men’s long jump. He recorded a best effort of 7.06 metres, a distance that did not secure him a place in the next stage of the competition.
Both athletes made early exits from the Games. Riaz’s run still stood out as a bright moment for Pakistan’s athletics contingent and gave the country a new marker in one of its most competitive track events.
Faiqa started out as a hockey player before switching to athletics in 2017. She competes for WAPDA and trains at Punjab Stadium in Lahore.
She made her first appearance on the international stage at the 2018 South Asian U20 Athletics Championships in Sri Lanka, finishing seventh in the 100m with a time of 13.38 seconds. In 2023, she won the women’s 100m title at the National Athletics Championships in Attock, clocking 12.00 seconds, and has won three gold medals at the National Games.
Riaz represented Pakistan at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the women’s 100m, competing on a universality slot. She finished sixth in her heat with a time of 12.49 seconds, which stood as her personal best going into Tuesday’s race at the Commonwealth Games.
The Paris Olympics marked only her second international competition, after the COVID-19 pandemic halted her early career following the 2018 South Asian Games.
