Pakistan Olympic Association

06-Jan-2012

The News

“We have written to the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) about our plan and they have invited us on January 10 to discuss the issue and to finalise the training schedule for the event,” Pakistan Weightlifting Federation (PWF) secretary Hafiz Imran Butt told The News on Thursday.

The championship also serves as qualifiers for the London Olympics to be held in August this year. “After the training schedule is finalised, open trials will be held in the federal capital for which the observers of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) will be invited,” Butt said. “There is a provision for six weightlifters in the championship, but after holding trials we will decide how many weightlifters we should send for the event. I hope that three or four boys will be given the chance to represent the country in the event,” the PWF official said.

He hoped that Pakistani weightlifters, majority of them young, would perform well in the spectacle. “You know, the experienced weightlifters are getting retired one after another and although we still have a few seasoned players we are focusing on the youngsters and we hope that they will put up their best,” the official added. “We are also trying to hire the services of a foreign coach for the training of our weightlifters ahead of the South Korea event. I have personally contacted coaches from strong weightlifting countries like Iran, China and Bulgaria and hopefully a deal will be done with one of them.”

To a question about wild card entry in case of failure in the championship, he said, “There are only ten seats of wild cards for weightlifting in the Olympics from all over the world and of these six are reserved for the men. And mostly the seats are given to those countries who are not featuring in any international event in order to show to the world that weightlifters from all over the world are taking part in the Olympics.”