Arshad hugely disappointed by Zohaib’s disappearance

LAHORE: Pakistan boxing team head coach and former Olympian Arshad Hussain on Saturday said that he is utterly disappointed over the unfortunate incident in Milan when his top pupil and the country’s premier boxer Zohaib Rasheed went missing before the formal launch of the World Qualification tournament for the Paris Olympics.

“I am very much disappointed. A coach is like a father. I trained him in extremely tough winter at Lahore for two and a half months. He was our main hope in the qualifiers but the step he has taken has left me shell-shocked,” Arshad told ‘The News’ from Milan in a chat. Zohaib, who also had to his credit Asian bronze, vanished a week ago, just a day before his opening flyweight fight in the World Qualifiers in Busto Arsizio Arena, located in the outskirts of Milan.

Upon knowing about the incident, Arshad reported the matter at the nearby police station but so far nothing is known about his whereabouts.

Zohaib, who is the son of a former boxer, was expected to earn an Olympic seat. He was in top shape. The way he had offered tough resistance against the world’s top fighter in Hangzhou Asian Games last year created a big hope for the Milan event.

“I worked a lot on him, not only for this event but for the previous so many events and he was our main hope,” Arshad said.

“I did not expect from him that he would do such a thing. It is disgusting,” said Arshad, an IBA three-star coach.

He said that the incident downed the morale of the rest of the boxers as well which affected their performances also.

“This incident let down our other fighters also as it occurred at a time when the event was just about to begin. We have so far not come out of the trauma,” Arshad said.

After Zohaib ditched the country, Azhar, Ibrahim and Fatima Zehra lost their opening fights while London-based Laura, who was going to make her debut, got injured during training which forced her to stay away from the event.