Pakistan Olympic Association

26-May-2012

The News

Khalid Hussain KARACHI: Pakistan captain Sohail Abbas announced on Friday that his team will be ready to ‘tackle all issues’ at this summer’s Olympic Games in London.

Recently, world champions Australia have lambasted the Olympic schedule that will force them to play three early morning matches. Pakistan will also have to play one of their matches – against Australia – at 8:30 in the morning but Sohail doesn’t believe that match timings will have much impact on the final outcome.

“I don’t think that the issue is of much importance to us,” Sohail told ‘The News’ from Ipoh, where Pakistan are featuring in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. “To do well at a major event like the Olympic you have to be ready to tackle all sorts of issues and that’s what we intend to do as we prepare for London,” he stressed.

Sohail was installed as Pakistan’s captain earlier this month and though his appointment is till next month’s training trip of Europe it is expected that the seasoned defender will be at the helm of Pakistan Olympic campaign during July-August this year.

The drag flick ace had a perfect captaincy debut on Thursday when he spearheaded Pakistan to a 4-2 win in their opening match of the seven-nation Azlan Shah Cup against Argentina.

Sohail said that Pakistan can make winning a habit through a positive approach to the game.

“We have to give our best regardless of the conditions,” he said. “There has to be a lot of positivity because that’s the only way a lower-ranked and lesser experienced team like Pakistan can achieve good results in London.”

Sohail also hailed new-found unity among his teammates.

“Its good to see that all the boys are supporting me as captain and backing each other up as teammates and that is a great sign.”

Pakistan will take on New Zealand in their next match on Sunday (tomorrow) and Sohail said that his boys will go all out for a victory.

Meanwhile, reports suggested on Friday that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has taken notice of Australia’s protest against the tough Olympic draw.

The Aussies, one of the title favourites, were outraged by the Olympic hockey schedule that has them playing three 8.30am games in London. In stark contrast hosts Great Britain, will play exclusively at night and in the afternoon.

To protest against the ‘unfair’ draw, Hockey Australia and the Australian Olympic Committee have formally tabled their challenge with the IOC.

Fiona de Jong, AOC’s director of sport, told ‘The Age’ on Friday that AOC had raised the issue directly with the IOC. She did not rule out taking the matter to the top — the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“The IOC responded to me saying it was a hockey matter, but that the IOC was definitely involved in this initial schedule and so they would be involved in the reconsideration by hockey,” de Jong was quoted as saying.

“They know that we mean business and that on these matters we will go down swinging and do everything we can to pursue a result that we think is fair and equitable.”

Australia coach Ric Charlesworth believes his team – Olympic champions in 2004 in Athens – has been disadvantaged by an unfair draw at London 2012.

“I don’t expect special treatment, I expect not to be disadvantaged, out of five matches you may expect one 5am start for our athletes not three,” Charlesworth said in a Hockey Australia statement late on Wednesday. “It interferes with momentum as major finals won’t be played at that hour and it interrupts our routine over two weeks. Early games should be fairly distributed between all teams.”