Saadi confident of winning Asiad medal

KARACHI: Dubai-based Pakistan’s premier karateka Saadi Abbas on Monday said that he was very much confident to finish at the ‘victory podium’ in the Asian Games penciled in for August 18 to September 2 in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang.

“Insha-Allah there are medal chances,’ Saadi told ‘The News’ in an interview from Dubai. “I will try my best to clinch gold. If I could not take gold then realistically speaking I will no doubt make my place in the victory podium. It is my aim and dream to win medal in Asian Games,” the country’s most successful fighter said.

However he was quick to add that his division is very tough. “Our division is very tough as the world’s strong nations including Japan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong will also field their fighters. These are the world’s top-ranked nations in karate. So it’s a bit tough but if I got little bit of good draws then I can also win final and claim gold. You know karate is a game in which a fighter needs to do his best in three minutes,” said Saadi.

“For these pressure fights I am now-a-days training in Dubai. In fact Pakistan’s government is doing nothing. A camp was in operation in Lahore but it has been halted. Although in Dubai there is an off-season but as I had to train for the Asian Games so I stayed here. I have also requested the UAE national team to give me training opportunity with it so that I could keep my rhythm,” Saadi informed.

Saadi plays in -75kg men’s kumite. Saadi has to his credit two gold in the Commonwealth Karate Championships, gold each in Asian Championship and US Open. He was the only Pakistani player in individual sports who secured silver in the 4th Islamic Games in Baku last year. Last year Saadi also finished fifth in the World Karate 1 Series A Karate Championship in Istanbul. About his World Karate Premier League achievements Saadi said in the same league the world’s top 64 who get registered first get a chance. “In the first three rounds of the league in France, Dubai and Netherlands I with the grace of Allah made place in top ten out of world’s 100 best fighters. I skipped the fourth round in Morocco due to financial issues and that hurt me as my ranking dropped from ten to 17,” Saadi said. “I will now go to Istanbul on June 6 to feature in the fifth round. Let’s see what happens. Those who took part in Morocco round improved their ranking and they would be a bit relaxed while I will have to work harder for taking more points,” the fighter explained.

Saadi was not happy with the attitude of the government as the state has not backed him substantially at any stage of his illustrious career.“The players don’t need anything more. If they are working hard they at least need some encouragement from the state. They need support in their bids to prepare for international events. You know I got silver in the Islamic Games but state did not encourage me and this has slightly hurt me,” Saadi said.

“When Commonwealth Games held the sports minister and the government woke-up. I must say that the players must get money but there should be some fixed policy. If an athlete knows that he can get so much cash award if he wins a medal in such and such event then a player will work harder to get medal,” the athlete said.

Saadi said that he had told Pakistan’s premier wrestler Mohammad Inam to invest on him if he was sure to take gold in the Commonwealth Games in Australia. “The state was not sending wrestlers to Iran for training. I told Inam that you had claimed Rs5 million previously for clinching gold in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. If you feel you can win gold this time in Australia so you should spend some money from your own pocket and train abroad which will benefit you in the Commonwealth Games. Later Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) did a commendable job to send its top grapplers to Iran for training which helped Pakistan to get one gold and two bronze in wrestling in Commonwealth Games,” Saadi recalled. Saadi said that he had the sort of potential through which he could turn out to be the world’s top fighter.

“I feel that I have potential and I can become world’s top fighter. I have played close matches with most of the world’s top seeds. But I would again request the government to take care of athletes as without support it becomes tough for the players to grow properly,” Saadi said. “Now another excuse may come as it will be said that the government is changing. There should be certain sports policy which should not be disturbed with such changes at the government level so that the athletes could not struggle for getting basic needs of training and other relevant preparation matters,” Saadi said.