Yasir, coach leave for S Korea

LAHORE: Aiming to make it to the Paris Olympics Pakistan’s No 2 javelin thrower and Asian bronze medallist Mohammad Yasir Sultan along with his coach Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari on Tuesday night flew out of here for South Korea to feature in the Asian Throwing Championship which will be held in Mokpo on June 14 and 15.

The javelin event will be conducted on June 15. The duo will reach Mopko in around 24 hours.

Yasir is committed to achieving the milestone of qualifying for the Paris Olympics which will be held this summer.

“InshaAllah, I will make my top effort,” Yasir told ‘The News’ before departure.

“Mentally I am ready. I have prepared well and yes it’s a do-or-die situation but I am confident,” said Yasir, who won bronze in the Asian Championship in Bangkok last year.

Yasir will get just two days to adjust with the conditions there and he says “it’s enough”.

“Yes, we will get two days as we are to fight on June 15 and I think it will be okay. The weather there is also good and it will be ideal for javelin event,” Yasir said.

His coach Fayyaz Hussain Bukhari also voiced optimism about his pupil’s success in Korea.

“I have fully prepared him as far as strength, speed, endurance and skills are concerned. All the bases are covered,” Bukhari told this correspondent.

“His motivation level is also high. Yesterday I told him to focus now and pray to Almighty God for success and I hope he will achieve his target,” Bukhari said.

“There temperature will be good and it will help us as you don’t exhaust quickly in good weather. It’s an ideal atmosphere, I think,” Bukhari said.

“We will adjust, inshaAllah, in a couple of days,” Bukhari said.

“We had a chance in China but we did not get visa. If you prepare for world competitions you need more chances but whatever we have got we will try to benefit from it,” said Bukhari, also a former coach of Arshad Nadeem.

“Win or loss is part of the game. If we are unable to give a breakthrough in Korea then at least he will achieve the 85m milestone even in training and when he goes to next competition he will manage a throw of 90 metres inshaAllah,” Bukhari said.

“Yasir is now a major player in Pakistan’s circuit and he has a good future and we will further work on him,” Bukhari said.

Yasir will need to achieve the 85.50 metre throw if he is to earn Olympics ticket. If he fails to do so then he will have to come in top 32 in the world rankings which will be released after the qualifying timeline of June 30.

If Yasir succeeds it will be history for Pakistan as two javelin throwers will represent the country in Olympics through direct qualification.

The country’s premier javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem has already qualified for the Paris Olympics following his silver-medal winning performance in the World Championship in Hungary last year.