Shah Hussain’s Rio Olympics hope ends

Pakistan Judo Federation’s (PJF) hope Shah Hussain Shah has been ruled out of the Rio Olympics 2016 race as he failed to qualify for the mega event.

Shah’s Olympic race ended on Sunday in Almaty, Kazakhstan as he lost to Rafael Buzacarini of Brazil in the Group B preliminary round of the Grand Prix which was the last qualifying event for Rio Games. Rafael eliminated Shah in just five minutes in the first round.

Shah, the two-time Asian Championship bronze medalist, needed at least gold to earn ticket for Rio de Janeiro. If he had finished with a silver medal, he would still have had a chance to qualify on continental quota. Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) had also filed a request with the International Judo Federation (IJF) to get continental quota for Shah.

PJF secretary Masood Ahmed said the federation, Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC) Ministry had invested a lot in Shah but he could not qualify for the Olympics. “We are disappointed with Shah’s result and in future we are planning to invest in young talent rather than spending on already tested players,” he said.

He said now our target is to prepare the young judokas for the 2020 Olympics to be held in Japan. “We have two upcoming talented judokas Qasier Khan Afridi (Fata) and Wajahat Sarwar (Punjab),” he said adding we are also planning to send Qasier for training to Iran next month.

He said though Shah lost for the Olympics but he has improved a lot in his ranking. “He came from 165th ranking to 65th just because of hard work,” he said.

(Source: The Nation)