Pakistan wrestlers unlikely to be sent for World Championships in France

KARACHI: India plans to send a 40-member wrestling contingent to France for the World Wrestling Championships later this summer but Pakistan is not likely to field any wrestler in the global event because of lack of money.

“We don’t have money to send our wrestlers to France,” Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) secretary Arshad Sattar told ‘The News’ on Wednesday. “We will write to the government for financial assistance. If we are financially supported then we will send a couple of grapplers to France,” he added.

A source in the PSB told ‘The News’ that the Board had no budget, so it was not possible for the Board to give money to the PWF for sending grapplers to France.

Wrestling is one of the three disciplines in which Pakistan has grabbed Olympic medals, the other being hockey and boxing.

Arshad said that Pakistan’s premier wrestler Mohammad Inam played extremely well in the Islamic Games in Baku in the 86kg competitions which also featured a few Olympic and World Championship medallists.

“Inam played really well. He beat a wrestler from Kyrgyzstan who is a world championship bronze medallist. And the wrestler from Azerbaijan Sharif Sharifov who defeated Inam in the quarter-finals is an Olympic gold medallist,” Arshad pointed out.

“Inam fought bravely against Sharif and earned points, which is encouraging,” he said.

Sharifov, a Russian-Azerbaijani wrestler of Avar descent, had claimed gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics.

Arshad said Inam had improved a lot. “If he is trained properly, he can win a medal in Olympics or World Championships for Pakistan in the next three to four years, which are very important years of his career,” he added.

He said the PWF could not do anything as its total budget was Rs1.5 million. “No one even sponsors us,” the official was quick to add.

Inam, who had grabbed gold medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, told this correspondent that he was satisfied with his performance in Baku. “I am happy with the way I performed. After beating World Championship bronze medallist wrestler of Kyrgyzstan I gave tough time to Sharif of Azerbaijan,” Inam said.

He said the experience of fighting against world’s top fighters would benefit him in the future events.

“I learnt a lot from these fights in Baku. Islamic Games are the toughest of competitions in wrestling as world’s leading grapplers are there,” Inam added.

He said all the boys played really well. “We trained with the limited facilities we had and I must say that all the wrestlers of our team put in their best. My cousin Abdul Wahab won a bronze as he got good draws that helped him,” Inam said.

He said Pakistan had the potential to win medals in Olympics if wrestling was properly financed. “We can’t plan for long because of dearth of resources. The Azerbaijan wrestler who beat me in the quarter-finals in Baku went to Russia for training. And here we don’t have money to make any solid plan,” he said.

“For achieving high goals we need proper support. The government must invest in this sport in which Pakistan can win medals at world’s major events,” Inam said.