IJF promises Pakistan foreign coach

KARACHI: International Judo Federation (IJF) has promised that it would manage a foreign coach for Pakistan in near future, a senior official of Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) said on Monday, writes Alam Zeb Safi.

“IJF has told us that it would arrange a foreign coach for us as we direly need a coach to prepare our lot for the next year’s Asian Games,” PJF vice-president Masood Ahmed told ‘The News’.

He said that the IJF had given the PJF an indication that the coach could be from Romania. “It is not yet confirmed but we have got an indication from the international body that it may be a Romanian coach,” the official added.

The Asian Games will be hosted by Indonesia in Palembang and Jakarta from August 18 to September 2, 2018.The official said the IJF would also contribute to the payment to the coach.

Masood also revealed that the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) had asked the PJF to submit a plan for the 2020 Olympics. “We will submit it later this week,” he said.He said the PJF would be focusing on three players for Olympics, Olympian Shah Hussain, Amina Toyoda and Qaiser Khan.

Shah and Amina are Tokyo-based and are rated as the country’s best seeds in their respective weights.Shah made his Olympic debut last year in Rio. He had qualified for the world’s most prestigious spectacle on continental quota.

Masood said that Qaiser would have to play Youth Olympics qualifiers. He added that every effort would be made to prepare him for the mission. “From January to July 2018 there will be qualifiers for Youth Olympics and we would like Qaiser to play in at least three international events during the period which would help him make a cut for the Youth Olympics,” the official said.

Youth Olympics will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from October 6-18, 2018. Masood was confident that Qaiser would qualify. “No doubt he is a gutsy judoka and I hope he will qualify,” he said.

He also said the PJF planned to send three or four top players abroad for training. “We had requested Mongolia but it did not reply. Now we are in contact with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and hopefully we will be able to strike a deal,” Masood said.

“Shah needs training in Central Asia as there he will learn new things and attacking game which is very important for him to succeed at any major stage,” the official said.In Rio 2016, Shah exited in the first round. He became the first Pakistani judoka to appear in Olympics.

His father Hussain Shah got bronze medal for Pakistan in boxing in 1988 Seoul Olympics — he remains the only Pakistani boxer to have clinched a medal at the Olympic level.