Pak-India judo series next year: Shujaat

KARACHI: Pakistan and India would launch their bilateral judo series from next year, Pakistan Judo Federation’s (PJF) president Col (retd) Shujaat Ali Rana said on Friday.
“I have a good relationship with Judo Federation of India’s (JFI) president Mukesh Kumar. We have already discussed the series,” Shujaat told ‘The News’ in an interview from Rawalpindi. “This year it will not be possible because India will host South Asian Championship and an international event is being held in Lahore. But from next year, I hope Pakistan and India will launch their bilateral series,” he said.
Shujaat was last month elected as president of the South Asian region during the Judo Union of Asia (JUA) elections in Kuwait.
“In the past too, efforts had been made to launch a bilateral series between the two countries but visa always remained an issue. Mukesh has assured me that this time visa would not be a problem and I hope it would be a fine beginning,” Shujaat said. “India’s female players are very good, so playing against them will help our girls learn,” Shujaat said. “In one year, we will tour India once and they will come to Pakistan as well,” the official added.
He also revealed that International Judo Federation (PJF) will sponsor three players and one coach of Pakistan during the World Championship and Grand Prix.
“I am really thankful to the IJF chief for helping Pakistan. Because of lack of resources, participation in these events always remained a problem for us. But now through the assistance of IJF we will be able to field more players in the major events,” Shujaat said.
“We have written to the government to give us permission of two to three players. And if the government responded positively then we will be able to field five to six players in the World Championship and Grand Prix which would be good enough for us,” Shujaat appended.
The World Championship will be held in Astana in August.
The World Championship and Grand Prix would be of more importance for Pakistan’s Japan-based judoka Shah Hussain who has a good chance to make a cut for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“Shah is really talented. We would not only field him in the World Championship and Grand Prix but an effort would be made to also provide him an opportunity to showcase his talent in other international event in Japan,” Shujaat said.
Shujaat also disclosed that as a South Asian Region president, he would try to hold a joint training camp of the South Asian countries most probably in India.
“We have the facilities for such training programme in Islamabad. But India have much better facilities for such purposes in New Delhi. And we plan to hold such a training camp in India’s capital in future so that every nation of the region could be benefitted,” Shujaat said.
Shujaat said he had also talked to Afghanistan for bilateral series but they were too unpredictable because of their internal disputes.
Shujaat said that he planned to manage more judo mates for Pakistan. “The price of a quality mate is around Rs4 million. We need more mates and I am confident we will get some in future,” he said.
To a query Shujaat said that Sri Lanka judo had been facing problems because the office bearers of their federation could serve for only two years.
He informed that Pakistan’s camp was in operation at Abbottabad. “We have around 20 players in the camp which had been shifted to Abbottabad because of the plan of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) to organise Inter-Provincial Games in Islamabad,” the official said.