Pak players to feature in all categories of CW Judo

KARACHI: Pakistan plans to field judokas in all categories of the Commonwealth (CW) Judo Championships which India is scheduled to host in Jaipur in November.

A senior official of Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) told The News on Monday that the PJF had already written to the organisers for visa support letter.“We are willing to field judokas in all categories of the event and for this purpose we have already written to the organisers for visa support letter. If the things went in right direction we would ensure our full-pledged participation in the competitions,” the PJF vice-president and media director Masood Ahmed told this correspondent.

He said the PJF had also filed case for NOC with the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB).Masood said that on the sideline of the event the elections of the Commonwealth Judo Association would also be held.

“Pakistan will also contest for an Executive Committee seat. We are yet to decide who will run for this post,” said Masood, also a former PJF secretary. The Commonwealth Judo Championships will be contested in seniors, masters, juniors and cadet categories.

Masood also revealed that in order to see a few of national judokas in the 2020 Olympics the PJF would request the PSB to assist the federation in fielding its leading fighters in the Olympic qualifiers which will begin from next year.

Olympian Shah Hussain Shah, Qaiser Afridi and Amina Toyoda are some of the main seeds who are capable to fight for Olympic seats.Japan-based Shah Hussain became the first Pakistani judoka who featured in the 2016 Rio Olympics. The son of former Pakistan’s Olympic medallist boxer Hussain Shah had qualified for the prestigious event through continental quota.

But the question arises that Shah will need much better training as he had to face first round exit in both the Asian Games in Indonesia the other month and World Championships in Baku last month.The young sensation Qaiser Afridi’s fate was also not much different from Shah as he also faced first round exit in both these events.