Shah, Qaiser miss Portugal, Paris qualifiers

KARACHI: Pakistan's two top judokas, Olympian Shah Hussain and Qaisar Khan, will not feature in Portugal Grand Prix and Paris Grand Slam, both 2024 Paris Olympics Qualifiers, due to financial issues.

A senior official of Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) told 'The News' on Thursday that the federation has no money and it cannot send the duo to the all-important events.

“Yes they are not going to be fielded due to financial issues. We are in debt and the state has not yet reimbursed the amount which we spent on fielding our fighters in four major events last year,” the official said.

The Portugal Grand Slam is scheduled to be held from January 27 to 29 and it will be immediately followed by the Paris Grand Slam which will be held from February 4 to 5.

It has been learnt that PJF needs Rs6.5 million urgently in order to clear its loan which it has managed for sending its fighters to the Olympic qualifying events last year. Those events were held in Mongolia, Abu Dhabi, Perth and Baku.

This correspondent understands that in some events held last year fighters met their accommodation expenses from their own pockets.

Japan-based Shah Hussain is a two-time Olympian, having featured in the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He is the only Pakistani judoka to have competed in the Olympics.

Shah, who has changed his weight category from -100kg to -90kg, again has a solid chance to qualify for the world's most prestigious extravaganza to be held in Paris in 2024.

His world ranking is 101 and his Olympics ranking is 60. Qaisar Khan, who is also a great future prospect, is ranked 108 in the Olympics rankings and if given chances in maximum qualifying events, he also has the chance.

These two fighters are training these days on their own.

A senior official of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) told 'The News' the other day that the Board supports judo but it cannot assist the federation in every event.

“Yes we can back it in specific events of Olympic qualifying rounds keeping in view our limited budget but we cannot assist it in every event,” the official said.

Judo has the most difficult two-year long Olympic qualifying pathway which ends in the Olympic year.

A federation needs to field its fighters in all important qualifiers to help its athletes boost their Olympic rankings.

In March this year, Tashkent Grand Slam and Antalya Grand Slam are scheduled and the PJF official said that every effort would be made to ensure participation of the fighters.

“We don't want to discourage our athletes and we will try our level best to field the duo in the March events,” the PJF official said.

Doha will host the World Championship in May and IJF rules say that those athletes, whose ranking is in top hundred, will feature in the global event.

Keeping in view this thing PJF will need at all cost to field its fighters in the March event, having missed the January-February qualifiers.

“We don't know how much the state will give us. If state tells us that we will get such an amount in the entire year then we will plan accordingly but the issue is that we are to wait until the end and so everything becomes too expensive,” the official said.

The PJF also is facing the issue of extension of contract of Iranian coach Sajjad Kazemi.