Coach confident Pakistani wrestlers to qualify for Olympics

LAHORE: Pakistan wrestling coach Ghulam Fareed on Monday said that he has worked extremely hard on the skills and intellectual development of the national grapplers and he is optimistic that they will qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics through the World Championship which will be held in Serbia later this month.

“We trained here for three months during which we did workout twice a day. We worked a lot on intellectual development and skill level of the wrestlers and I am quite confident that we will be able to qualify for the Paris Olympics,” Fareed told The News here in a detailed chat.

“If we do this it will be history as well as we will return to the Olympics fold for the first time since we last featured in the world’s major event way back in 1960 and Muhammad Basheer got a bronze,” Fraeed said.

Pakistan’s three wrestlers, seasoned grapplers Mohammad Inam, Mohammad Bilal and Youth Olympics bronze medallist Inayatullah were packing to leave for Serbia late Monday night (3am) to attend a ten-day camp and to feature in the World Championship which will be held from September 16 to 26.

The global event also serves as a qualifier for the Paris Olympics. This is the first qualifying event and the national grapplers will also feature in the Asian qualifying round to be held in Bishkek in April 2024 and World qualifying round in Istanbul in May 2024.

In the World Championship in Serbia top six in each weight category will earn Olympics tickets. “Initially I had no big hopes but now I have great hopes because of the way we have worked out here in training camp. I expect solid performances from them,” Fraeed said. “After Russians and Americans, Asian states win most of the medals. Bilal, Inam and Inayatullah several times have got fifth and third positions in Asia. It also depends on draws,” he said.

“If you talk about India so their qualification also depends on draws. There are a couple of tough states like Iran and Kazakhstan but besides them our boys are in a position to beat the rest of the Asian states,” Fareed said.

“Inayatullah and Bilal are fully prepared and their body weights are well-maintained and I hope we will qualify for the Olympics,” Fraeed was quick to add. “This time we targeted the Asian Games and so we prepared well,” he said.

He said that the training camp in Serbia will also be very helpful for the Pakistani lot ahead of the World Championship. “Definitely it will help a lot,” Fareed said. “As many as 36 nations are attending the camp and around 105 grapplers will undergo training there. It will provide them with pre-competition fights and it will help a lot,” he said. Fareed is not accompanying the Serbia-bound party which will be joined by a senior official of Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) Arshad Sattar after a few days as he is trying to get the visa.