Pak athletes desperately need foreign coaches: Sahi

KARACHI: A senior official of Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) has said that Pakistan direly needs a couple of foreign athletics coaches for one year so that a few top athletes could be prepared for the Asian Games properly.

“We need a foreign coach for javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem and a coach for hurdles as we have a few good athletes in the same event who, if properly prepared, would be able to perform well in the Asian Games,” AFP President Major Gen Akram Sahi told ‘The News’ on Friday.

“Javelin thrower Arshad has stopped on 78 metre. He has produced such a performance because of his capability. If at this stage we don’t train him under a better foreign coach he will not make any substantial progress,” said Sahi, also a former international athlete.

“And so is the case with our hurdlers Mehboob and Nokar Hussain. If we keep them along with a few others under a foreign coach for one year then I am hopeful something substantial would be produced in the Asian Games. Otherwise these players will go and return without any result,” Sahi elaborated.

The Asian Games would be held in Indonesia from August 18 to September 2, 2018.

He said that Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) gives US$2500 to a foreign coach as per its policy, adding, if the AFP gets a coach with high demand then effort would be made to convince the Army and WAPDA to also contribute to the cause so that their athletes could be properly developed, which would also benefit these departments.

He said he would search for foreign coaches when he goes to England in near future for attending a Congress meeting of the world athletics governing body (IAAF) just before the start of the World Athletics Championships in London.

He said that he also plans to meet Army Chief so that Mehboob and Nokar, who belong to Army, could be sent abroad for training.

Sahi said that Indian athletics authorities were very keen to have javelin thrower Arshad in their camp.

“They were very keen to have Arshad in their camp and are very cooperative but the issue is that our athlete will not get India’s visa. Our visas were endorsed recently for the Asian Championship after a great effort at the highest level in India as they thought if Pakistan’s contingent was not issued visas it would be a great humiliation for India,” the official said.

Sahi also revealed that the AFP plans to send eight men and four women athletes for the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games to be held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, from September 17-27.

“The four are those who featured in relay in the Asian Championship in India recently. Of them Mehboob and Nokar would also run in 400m hurdles. We have also put young sprinter Shehbaz and young triple jumper Mohammad Afzal in the squad,” Sahi said.

Athletes would begin training in Islamabad from August 1 as approved by the PSB.