Wrestling camp to begin after general elections

LAHORE: Having failed to get a nod from the government despite repeated requests relating to the sponsorship of the national camp, Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) has decided to hold the national camp for the Paris Olympics Qualifiers immediately after the general elections.

The general elections are scheduled to be held on February 8. “We have written several times to the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) to give us a camp but so far nothing has happened,” PWF vice-president Arshad Sattar told The News on Friday.

“Then I though that we should wait a bit as it was too cold and now we have decided to go for establishing the camp immediately after the general elections,” Arshad was quick to add.

He said that the camp will be held at Lahore. Having failed to give any breakthrough in the World Championship in Serbia in September last year, national grapplers still have two chances to qualify for the world’s most prestigious event which will be held in Paris coming summer.

The Olympic Games Asian Qualifiers are slated to be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from April 19-21 and the Olympic Games World Qualifiers are scheduled to be held in Istanbul from May 9-12.

Top two in each weight category at the Asian Qualifiers will qualify for the Olympics and top three in each weight at the World Qualifiers will make it to the Olympics. Arshad said that despite the camp at the national level, the PWF will be making every effort to manage a foreign training tour for the top wrestlers before the Asian Qualifying round.

“We have also interacted with some foreign nations where we would like to send our wrestlers for training. There are a few Central Asian countries and Russia is also on the radar but nothing is final yet and will let you know when it becomes final,” Arshad said.

“We recently sent Mohammad Inam and Mohammad Bilal who were taking IOC scholarship and Zaman Anwar to US for 45 days,” Arshad said.

“We can also try young lad Abdullah who belongs to Gujranwala. He took gold in the national event. He plays in 65 kilogramme,” Arshad revealed.

He was not happy with the Youth Olympics bronze medallist Inayatullah’s fitness and form but plans to put him in the camp. “His game has experienced a dip. He also disappointed us in the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year.

But I will try to invite him to the camp and will then see how fit he is and then we will plan whether he should be played in the Qualifiers or not,” Arshad said.