Pakistani star weightlifter, Talha Talib misses Asian Junior Weightlifting Championships 2019
Pakistan’s young and talented weightlifter Talha Talib, returned from Beijing airport due to flight issue and thus missed the 2019 Asian Junior Weightlifting Championships which began in Pyongyang, North Korea.
As an emerging weightlifting talent of Pakistan, Talha Talib, who have won bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games last year, is one of the hopes of the country for the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics but due to flight issues, he missed the Asian Junior Weightlifting Championships 2019 which serves as a qualifying round for the prestigious games next year.
Talha and his Coach, Ali Aslam were on schedule as they flew out of Islamabad via Air China for Beijing to then catch a connecting flight for North Korea which was three hours and 30 minutes after landing in Beijing. But the flight from Federal Capital to Beijing got delayed for five hours as a result of which the Pakistani weightlifter and his Coach couldn't catch the next flight which caused a miss out for Talha.
A Senior Official of Pakistan Weightlifting Federation (PWF) informed that a flight could be caught for Pyongyang on October 21 but as Talha had to compete on October 22 it was also of no use. So they returned from Beijing.
“The airline did not give us a place to stay and they had to spend 26 hours at the airport. We will file a claim for a refund as it was the mistake of the airline." said the PWF Official.
Talha would now feature in the 33rd National Games which are to commence from 9 to 14 November in Peshawar and then in the 13th South Asian Games which are to be held in Nepal from 1 to 10 December.
PWF Official further said,
“There was indeed a medal chance and it’s highly unfortunate.”
