Pakistan might win medals in judo, boxing, hockey, shooting

KARACHI: When Imran Khan takes oath of Prime Minister in Islamabad, the Asian Games 2018 will start the same day. There is gloom in the sports fraternity as far as the performance of the Pakistani athletes and winning of the medals in various disciplines is concerned. But in some disciplines the players and officials are hopeful that they will perform well and win medals, writes Syed Intikhab Ali.

The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and the federations have failed to keep the green flag high even in those disciplines which Pakistan reigned in the past. The federal government has failed to organise the National Games since 2012.

Hockey, squash, boxing, wrestling, judo, and rifle shooting are those disciplines in which Pakistan has remained prominent but bad governance has resulted in lack of funds, emergence of parallel bodies, and lack of sports competitions.

Muhammad Rafiq, Pakistan Judo Federation’s (PJF) joint secretary told ‘The News’ that he expected judokas Shah Hussain and Qaiser Afridi to win medals for Pakistan. Rafiq said that Shah Hussain, son of great Pakistan boxer Hussain Shah, won bronze medal in last Asian Judo championship. He also won silver medal in Commonwealth Games two months ago in Australia.

Qaiser won bronze medal in Asian junior championship in Uzbekistan. Qaiser attended a training camp in Uzbekistan to improve his performance in the Asian Games, Rafiq added. He said that if Pakistan judokas won medals in the Asian Games, he would award them gold chains.

Former international boxer Ali Bux, who coached Pakistan’s six pugilists for Asian Games, hopes that Asif, Mohib Ullah, Naqeeb Ullah, Salman Baloch, Gul Zaib and Tanvir Ahmed will perform well and will win medals.

Experts said that there was no hope of Pakistan winning a medal in individual squash at the Asian Games. They said Tayyab Aslam and Asim Khan would not be able to go beyond the quarter-finals because Hong Kong, Malaysia, India and Qatar had better players.

In team event, however, there is some hope. But Pakistan’s medal chances depend on the draws. The best performance from Pakistan is likely to come in hockey. The country can win the hockey title if the forwards and penalty corner specialists avail themselves of the goal scoring chances.

Captain Muhammad Rizwan and goalkeeper Imran Butt say they will go all out and win the gold medal for Pakistan because they have “worked really hard” under the supervision of renowned coaches and have improved their form and fitness.

“We have to win the semi-final and the final. Reaching the semi-finals will be no problem for us,” said the captain. “Our morale is high after playing against the strongest teams of the world in Champions Trophy. Before that, in Commonwealth Games, we did not lose any match although there, too, we faced some strong teams,” he added.

“We have worked hard for about four months to win the Asian Games and we are now able to challenge any team of the world,” said Rizwan. Imran said that he had recovered his form and fitness and was determined to play his due role in winning the title.

Pakistan has high chances of winning medals in shooting. “We expect to win medals in Rapid Fire Pistol and Skeet-125 categories as our shooters are very well prepared in these disciplines,” said Javed S Lodhi, Executive Vice President of National Rifle Association of Pakistan (NRAP).

He added that G M Bashir was doing fine in Rapid Fire Pistol and would easily be the finalist. Khalil, who won bronze medal in Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017, is also in good form, he added.

In Skeet, he said, Usman Chand and Abdul Sattar were in great form and would win medals. “They will surely break into the top ten shooters of the world by the next year,” said Javed. He added that Farrukh Nadeem in Trap category and Amir in Double Trap category had also improved a lot. “Minhal Suhail in Air Rifle category and Nadira in Rifle 3-positions have improved a lot and have bright prospects,” said Javed.He said that Zeeshan and Ghufran in Air Rifle and Rifle 3-position categories had the ability to score well in the Asian Games.