Wrestling NEWS

Pak wrestlers to vie for Rio slots in Mongolia, Turkey

Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) is all set to field its wrestlers in the twin World Qualifying rounds for Olympics within the next one month, hoping that at least a couple of boys will make it to the Rio Olympics.

Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) is all set to field its wrestlers in the twin World Qualifying rounds for Olympics within the next one month, hoping that at least a couple of boys will make it to the Rio Olympics.

“Yes, we have decided to field wrestlers in both the events,” PWF secretary Arshad Sattar told ‘The News’ on Tuesday. “I hope that a couple of our wrestlers will qualify for the Olympics,” he said.

The first world qualifying tournament will be held in Mongolia from April 22-24 and the second leg will be hosted by Turkey in Istanbul from May 6-8.

“Due to lack of money we have decided to field only Mohammad Inam in the Mongolia event, but in the Turkey qualifiers we plan to field our top five players,” Arshad said.

“If Inam qualifies, it will be great. If he fails to qualify through the first qualifiers, he will also be part of Pakistan’s squad in Turkey,” said Arshad, also a former international.

Besides the Commonwealth Games gold medallist Inam (86kg), Mohammad Bilal (57kg), Qamar Abbas (65kg), Asad Butt (74kg) and Zaman Anwar (125kg) will be taking part in the Turkey qualifiers.

Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has informed the PWF that it has no funds to support the federation for the qualifiers. “Yes, the Board has informed us that it does not have money for us,” Arshad said.

“We will have to bear all the expenses ourselves. You know wrestling is the only discipline left in which Pakistan can make a cut for Rio Games,” Arshad said.

From the Mongolia qualifiers three wrestlers in each weight will reach the Olympics. Through the Turkey qualifiers two in each weight will earn Olympics tickets.

“Pakistan definitely has a chance,” Arshad said.

The grapplers have been training in Lahore.

Besides these twin back-to-back qualifiers Pakistan had also confirmed its entry for the Asian qualifying round held in Astana from March 18-21, but withdrew the entry when Inam got injured during training. It also forced him to sit out of the Asian Championship held in Bangkok in February in which the country fielded four wrestlers.

Pakistan did not perform well in the continental event in Bangkok but featuring in it was compulsory. Without participating in it, Pakistan would not have been eligible for the world qualifiers.

Those who fought in the Asian Championship were Mohammad Bilal, Asad Butt, Mohammad Nadir and

Zaman Anwar. Zaman recently won gold medal at South Asian Games.

Besides hockey, Pakistan has won Olympic medals only in wrestling and boxing.

In 1960 Rome Olympics, Pakistani wrestler Mohammad Bashir got bronze medal. In 1988 Seoul Olympics boxer Hussain Shah clinched bronze.

“There is so much talent in Pakistan that we can lift many medals in Olympics if the boys are trained scientifically,” Arshad said.

Arshad said that infrastructure was very important for the growth of the game. “Sports Board Punjab (SBP) has agreed in principle to purchase 48 mats for distribution among Punjab districts. I have come to know that the Board has worked on it. I hope the mats will bring a change in standard of the game,” he said.

The PWF also wants to have a foreign coach. “We have sent a request to Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) in this regard. The other day the Board advised us to submit another request and we hope that it will give approval for a foreign coach in its budget meeting,” he said.

“The government has struck a deal with Iran and the PSB is also trying to provide us a coach from that country. We will accept the offer as Iran is a strong country in wrestling,” he said.

Arshad said it would not be easy to promote the game unless the state helped the PWF. “If the government supports us we will open three or four academies which are very important to promote the game,” he said.

Most of the districts of Punjab have a lot of wrestling talent, which if groomed properly, would produce desired results, Arshad said.

“We don’t have exact data about the number of wrestlers, but in most of the cities of Punjab we have 20 to 30 highly talented wrestlers. Especially, there is abundance of wrestling talent in Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan and Bahawalpur,” Arshad said.

The PWF has also decided to work properly for revenue generation.

“In our council meeting a few days ago our chairman Syed Aqil Shah formed two committees to bring sponsorship,” Arshad said.

(Source: The News)

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