Pakistan contingent’s secretary to attend DRM in Rio on Aug 2

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Olympic contingent secretary Mohammad Jehangir will fly out of Lahore for Brazil in the wee hours of Monday (tomorrow) to attend the Delegation Registration Meeting (DRM) at Rio on August 2.

“Yes, I am leaving at 3am tomorrow night and will reach Brazil on August 2 to attend the DRM meeting,” Jehangir told ‘The News’ from Lahore on Saturday.

“Pakistani athletes will reach Brazil on August 2 and before they would come there I would have managed everything for them,” the official said.

Jehangir is the president of Pakistan Karate Federation (PKF) and the member of the affiliation committee of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA).

The rest of the members of the contingent will leave for Rio on August 2. As many as seven athletes will represent Pakistan at Rio Games.

They include London-based swimmer Haris Bandey, Dubai-based swimmer Lianna Swan, Japan-based judoka Shah Hussain, shooters Ghulam Mustafa Bashir, Minhal Sohail, athletes Mehboob Ali and Najma Parveen. They will be accompanied by their officials.

Shoukat Javed, a top baseball official, will serve as chef de mission. Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) medical-wing chief Dr Waqar Ahmed, PSB Director General Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera are also part of the delegation. The POA chief Arif Hasan and secretary Khalid Mehmood and minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Riaz Pirzada will also reach Rio before the opening ceremony of the Olympiad on August 5.

This would the smallest contingent which Pakistan will be fielding at the march-past in the opening ceremony.

No Pakistani athlete could qualify directly and all are featuring on the basis of different types of quotas.

Initially, it was expected that Shah Hussain would be accompanied by his Japanese coach but that decision had been reversed as Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) later nominated secretary of Pakistan Army Sports Directorate Col Junaid Alam as official.

Pakistan Swimming Federation’s (PSF) secretary Veena Masood, Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) secretary Mohammad Zafar and foreign coach of shooting are also part of the delegation.