News > POA

Wrestlers’ hopes for Olympics dashed Back To Main

KARACHI: Pakistan’s hopes to make the cut for Olympics in wrestling have been dashed as the Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) has abandoned its plans to field its grapplers in the qualifying rounds due to financial problems.

‘The News’ learnt through highly reliable sources that the PWF had requested the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for financial assistance for imparting quality training to its wrestlers ahead of the Asian Championship and Olympic qualifying rounds, but no positive response was given, which forced the authorities to give up their plans to avail themselves of what could have been a golden opportunity.

Pakistan were scheduled to field their top wrestlers in the Asian Championship, a compulsory event for the qualifiers, to be held in Almaty from March 28 to April 1. Following the continental event Pakistan’s next target would have been to feature in the back-to-back Olympic qualifying rounds penciled in for April 25-29 in Taiyuan (China) and May 2-6 in Helsinki (Finland).

Pakistan’s Mohammad Bashir won a bronze medal in Olympics in the 1960 Rome extravaganza. The current Pakistani lot, including the Commonwealth Games gold medalists Azhar Hussain and Mohammad Inam, could have sprung surprises in the qualifying rounds.

Financial problems have constantly crippled the country’s sports and so far Pakistan has qualified for Olympics only in hockey after winning gold medal in the 2010 China Asian Games.

Now boxing is the only sport left with a thin chance of qualifying for the prestigious event as the national pugilists are preparing these days in Islamabad for the Asian Qualifying round to be held in Kazakhstan from April 4-13.

All eyes will be on the talented Mohammad Waseem who is the only lad in the pack able to deliver in what will be a tough round. National pugilists lost their first chance of qualifying for the Olympics when they failed to click in the World Championship in Baku in September-October last year.

In shooting, too, Pakistan could not earn a ticket for London Games despite having a number of chances. Pakistan is now expecting wild card entry into the Olympics as over a dozen shooters have achieved the minimum qualifying scores (MQS).

In swimming, athletics and judo as well, Pakistan is waiting for wild card entries. In sailing, another competitive sport in the country, Pakistan failed to avail itself of most of the qualifying opportunities due to financial problems.

Sailor Qasim Abbas had been fielded in the ISAF World Championship held in Australia in November last year but he failed to click.