ISLAMABAD, 1 February (BelTA - Associated Press of Pakistan). - Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) is planning to field nine judokas – six men and three women in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, a PJF official said on Monday.
“We've a highly talented bunch of judokas, who can claim medals in the prestigious Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) had sought names of potential judokas and today [Monday] we've forwarded them names of our nine judokas,” Masood Ahmed, vice president of PJF told APP.
The Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held in Birmingham, UK from July 28 to August 8, while the Asian Games are penciled in for September 10-25 in Hangzhou, China. According to Masood, the PJF was focused on judokas, who exhibited standout performance in the recently-held two national events – Diamond Jubilee Pakistan Chief Minister Balochistan and the National Judo Championships.
Initially, we are targeting Common Wealth Games and for that we've chalked out a phase-wise programme. But the big hurdle in our way is scarcity of funds. “In the first phase, if we timely get necessary funds, we will send all these judokas for a four-week elite training from academies in some Center Asian countries.
“This will help improve their conditioning and competition skills while training with other Olympian judokas from around the world,” he added.
He said in the second phase, all the athletes would move to IJF Judo Academy, Tashkent Uzbekistan to train for around one month to have skills of European style of judo, which is considered a threat to Japanese judo.
“There they will also participate in two international ranking competitions. “In the third phase, the judokas who will excel in the international events as well as national events will be camped in a venue yet to be decided to further groom their skills,” he maintained. He said Pakistan had some highly talented judokas in different weight categories.
Sharing the details of the judokas, whom the federation intends to prepare for Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, Masood said these included Japan-based two-time Olympian Shah Hussain Shah (-100kg), Qaisar Khan Afridi (-90kg), Hamid Ali (+100kg), Haseeb Mustafa (-81kg), Muhammad Asif (-73kg), Muhammad Hasnain(-66kg), Humaira Ashiq(-57kg), Shumaila Gull (-52kg) and Japan-based Amina Toyoda.
