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Pakistan Eye London Spots In Wrestling Back To Main

The News

“We are going to hold open trials in Lahore on January 14 and 15 and plan to pick around 14 to 16 top grapplers, who will then be kept in a camp to prepare for the Asian Championship and the Olympic qualifiers,” PWF secretary Chaudhry Asghar told ‘The News’ on Saturday.

About the camp he said that it would be decided after consultation with the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB).

“We have already written a letter to the PSB about our plans that we will need the Board’s financial support in the preparation and participation of national wrestlers in the Asian Championship and Olympic Qualifiers. But we are yet to receive any response from them. I now plan to visit Islamabad in a couple of days in order to discuss the issue with PSB’s top brass,” said Asghar.

The Asian Championship will be hosted by Kazakhstan in Almaty from March 28 to April 1. After the continental event, Pakistan will field their wrestlers in the Olympic qualifying rounds to be held in Taiyuan (China) from April 25- 29, and Helsinki (Finland) from May 2-6.

The Asian Championship is mandatory and only those wrestlers will be eligible to take part in the Olympic qualifiers who will feature in the continental event.

Wrestling is one of the few disciplines in which Pakistan have won a bronze medal in Olympics when Mohammad Bashir claimed a bronze in the 1960 Rome Games.

Hockey has been the most successful sport of Pakistan at the Olympic level as the country has so far bagged three gold, three silver and two bronze medals in this discipline in the world’s most prestigious affair. Boxing has also a tiny share in the shape of a bronze medal which Lyari-born Hussain Shah, now settled in Japan, won in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Chaudhry said if Pakistan are able to field a healthy pool in the qualifiers then he is confident that the country could make a cut for this year’s London Olympics in August.

“It is premature to predict but I could say if we are able to field four or five wrestlers in the qualifiers then at least one of them could qualify for the Olympics,” he hoped.

Chaudhry said that Iranian coach Ali Moazzan will join the camp from the very first day. “Moazzan is a good choice for us ahead of the qualifiers as the wrestlers have good understanding with him and his presence will be ensured from the first day of the camp,” he added.

Pakistani wrestlers did not get much exposure last year and particularly they were left disappointed when they were not issued Australian visas for the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship held in Melbourne from August 5-7. Had Pakistan featured in the event it could have cleared the picture for the authorities how much chance the country has in the Olympic qualifiers.

Pakistan’s top wrestlers and the Commonwealth Games’ gold medalists Azhar Hussain and Mohammad Inam have recently returned from South Korea after undergoing a two-month training for which the duo were picked by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) for their splendid performance. But ‘The News’ has learnt that Mohammad Inam sustained a knee injury during training in South Korea and is doubtful for the qualifiers.

So far, Pakistan have qualified for the Olympics only in hockey after the national team lifted gold in the 2010 Asian Games in China. There is little hope attached with wrestling, boxing and shooting and if any one from these disciplines did not qualify then the hockey team would be accompanied by a few wild card entrants from swimming, athletics and shooting etc like the 2008 Beijing Games.