LAHORE: The country’s judo governing body (PJF) has now planned to groom youngsters abroad in a bid to return at least to 2032 Olympics after losing two-time Olympian Shah Hussain, due to his growing age, and Qaiser Afridi, who has settled in England
“Yes, Shah Hussain is now at the twilight of his career and Qaiser has left the country so we have planned to focus on youngsters,” PJF vice-president Masood Ahmed told The News in an interview.
Masood recently held a meeting with the Uzbekistan Judo Federation (UJF) president and told him that Pakistan wants to send its top young lot to Tashkent for training in 2024. And UJF has agreed.
“Yes during the Asian Junior Championship in Tashkent I had a meeting with the UJF chief and secretary general and told them that we want to train our young fighters, both men and women, in Uzbekistan and we are thankful that they have welcomed us. We now plan to send ten to 12 top under-18 and under-20 fighters next year. Our plan is to send them between April and August keeping in view the summer vacations of the fighters,” Masood said.
“Filling the huge void left by Shah Hussain and Qaiser is not easy. We will need to make a bold effort which should be strongly backed financially. If we are consistent in our approach then I am confident we can produce such fighters who could fill that void,” Masood said.
“We want our fighters to train in three different central Asian countries. We want to train them in Uzbekistan for a month and then for a month in Kyrgyzstan as they will go there by road and will then train for a month in Tajikistan,” he said.
Masood said that he also had a discussion with the UJF overseas director. “And if we send our fighters there they will train under him and it will be a huge plus,” Masood said.
He said that PJF will soon submit its plan and budget with the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and hopefully the federation will be able to set the ground for materialising its plan which needs to be implemented if they are to return to the Olympic fold.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan remained in the limelight in judo for several years and got world recognition as Japan-based Shah Hussain represented the country in 2016 Rio Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He qualified for these Olympics through the continental quota both times. He was also expected to fight for a 2024 Paris Olympics seat but an injury in the middle of the journey forced him to stay away from the remaining Qualifiers.
The judo Olympics qualification timeline is always two years and an athlete has to feature in maximum events which eventually can help him to earn the coveted seat. Besides injury financial issues also had a huge hand in Shah Hussain’s decision to keep himself out of the Olympics race.
Although he is expected to feature in the forthcoming South Asian Games it is clear that he will not be able to play another Olympics due to his growing age.
Masood said that there is huge talent which needs to be polished. “You know we have a handful of sparkling boys who need our focus. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Balochistan have the talent. Sindh also has a few kids who can emerge. The fighters of Balochistan have the killer instinct,” he said.
He said that hiring a foreign coach is also on their radar but it all depends on the available budget. “Let’s see how the government responds,” Masood said. He said that a foreign-based fighter has also approached the PJF and they will see how useful he can turn out for Pakistan. He is in the low weight, he said.
Masood said that during his recent visit to Tokyo he also talked to Shah Hussain for coaching purposes ahead of the South Asian Games. “I have discussed this with Shah Hussain but he said that he would be able to coach Pakistani lot for a month but not full time as he himself would also prepare for the biennial event,” Masood said.
Alam Zeb Safi Alam Zeb Safi is a senior reporter for The News
