Sahi narrowly misses IAAF council membership

KARACHI: The president of Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) Major General (retd) Akram Sahi narrowly missed the international athletics governing body (IAAF) council membership in Doha on Wednesday.

Sahi, a former international athlete, was one of the 39 candidates contesting for the world body’s Council seat. He secured 88 votes. The last member who got elected for the council secured 91 votes, AFP secretary Mohammad Zafar told ‘The News’ from Doha which hosted the IAAF Congress on Wednesday. “We were just unlucky,” he added.

Sahi is also the vice-president of the Asian Athletics Association (AAA). Meanwhile, Athletics Federation of India’s (AFI) chief Adille Sumariwalla retained his seat as council member by securing 121 votes in the 203-member house. AFI chief is the only South Asian on the IAAF Council.

The IAAF Council will be composed of 26 members, eight of them women. The 13 newly elected members will be joined by six Area Presidents and two members of the Athletes’ Commission, one man and one woman, including the Chair, the IAAF said. IAAF President Sebastian Coe was elected for a second term at the 52nd IAAF Congress.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s leading javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem has reached Doha to feature in the World Athletics Championships which will begin in Qatar’s capital’s Khalifa International Stadium on Friday (tomorrow).

Arshad will be aiming to meet his Olympic target of 85m throw in the event which is being held at a venue full of innovations. A cooling system has also been installed there. Arshad, a bronze medallist of 2018 Asian Games, aims to click in Doha and qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Arshad is the biggest Olympic hope of Pakistan. He hasn’t had the best preparation ahead of the global event because of problems back home, most importantly financial constraints.

Arshad’s preliminaries will be held on October 5 with the finals to be conducted on October 6. Arshad also claimed bronze in the Asian Junior Athletics Championships held in Vietnam in 2016.

After claiming bronze in the 2016 South Asian Games in India, Arshad also held World No3 position at the Under-20 level. He also got bronze in 2017 Baku Islamic Games.