Qaiser wins bronze in Asian Cup Cadet Judo Championship

KARACHI: Pakistan’s judoka Qaiser Khan Afridi won bronze medal in the Asian Cup Cadet Judo Championship in Kyrgyzstan on Friday, which boosted his qualifying chances for Youth Olympics.

According to the information provided by Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF), Qaiser defeated Kim Hyungseok of South Korea in the bronze medal fight.

Competing in the -91kg competitions World No 29 Qaiser had a great start when he whacked Kyrgyzstan’s Ishenbaev, who is World No 25, to make it to the semi-finals where he lost to World No1 Saduakas Bekarys of Kazakhstan.

But the fight against the world’s top fighter, who eventually won gold, helped Qaiser as he was given a repechage for the bronze medal and there he lived up to the billing by ousting the South Korean fighter.

The PJF said that Qaiser had improved his ranking and thus almost made it to the Youth Olympics which are to be hosted by Argentina later this year.Qaiser is also in the 2020 Olympic plans of the PJF, which wants to train him with Japan-based Olympian Shah Hussain.

PJF vice-president Masood Ahmed told ‘The News’ that Qaiser had 90 percent qualified for the Youth Olympics. “His ranking will go up further due to this win,” Masood said.

He was quick to add that before Youth Olympics there were six more international events, two each in Asia, Europe and Africa. “We have decided to send Qaiser to those events so that he could keep his ranking intact,” the official said. He also said that Qaiser would stay in Kyrgyzstan for four days to attend a training programme there.