Moeed laments SSB’s unhelpful attitude

KARACHI: Abdul Moeed Baloch despite facing financial crisis bagged two gold medals in 100 m and 200m and was also part of Sindh relay team that won the silver medal in the recently concluded Inter-Provincial Games.

Moeed clocked 10.92s in 100m and 21.82s in 200m — the fastest at the national level.Talking to ‘The News’, Moeed said that all the credit goes to his coaches Umme Rumma and Ahmed Wali who worked hard to make him capable of what he has achieved. “My coaches played an important role,” he said.

Moeed said he got no support from the provincial government or the Sindh Sports Board (SSB). He added that it was too hard for him and his teammates to travel to participate in the contests.

He said that the PSB had provided the SSB Rs4,500 per person but the SSB gave them only Rs2000 per player.Moeed said that the athletes of Sindh were capable of bringing laurels for the country but they had not been supported by their government.He said Jamaican star Usain Bolt is his ideal. He said he wished to break his record in 100m which is 9.58s which he had set in 2009.

“I am working hard and I hope I will be able to break the record of Usain,” he said. He said he wanted to compete at the Olympic level. Moeed said he was not able to participate in international events because of the politics in the federation.

He said that there were many athletes who got benefits because of their connections with high officials. His coach Umme Rumma told ‘The News’ that they had faced a lot of problems in Islamabad during their stay.

She revealed they were treated in a pathetic way by the federation officials.She said that the attitude of the officials was discouraging as they were paying more attention to the Punjab athletes.

“The players got the prize money but after being humiliated,” she stated. She further said that they were not being supported by the SSB. The coach said the talent of Sindh had been wasted for several decades due to the lack of interest of the board.“Due to the politics of associations the clubs were not able to produce quality athletes,” she said.She said the clubs should be separated from the associations.