Shah misses bronze in Asia-Pacific Judo C’ship

KARACHI: Olympian judoka Shah Hussain narrowly missed bronze medal when he lost to a fighter from Uzbekistan in the bronze medal fight of the Asia-Pacific Judo Championship at Fujairah, UAE, on Monday.

Tokyo-based Shah overall finished fifth in the -100 kilogramme competitions, carrying 21 fighters. However the feat, which also carries three victories, would help Shah grab points which will add to his Olympic journey. Shah, earlier on Monday, began his journey in a fine way when he defeated world junior champion Sekine Kiyotaka of Japan in the preliminaries. He then went on to defeat a fighter from Tajikistan to make it to the quarter-finals. But there he lost to a player from Fiji. He then went into repechage and in the quarter-finals he defeated a fighter from Kazakhstan but lost to an Uzbek in the bronze medal fight.

His father and former Olympic medallist boxer Hussain Shah told The News from Tokyo on Monday that his son needed financial support.

“If a player, who has no financial support from any cordon, can fight like this it shows that he has all the talent but he needs a solid support,” Hussain said. “Why we are wasting our top talent? Other fighters, who fought Shah had the facilities, but the way my son beat some of them and gave a tough time to others shows that Shah can pull off wonders if he is given financial assistance during his Olympic journey,” Hussain said. He requested the Prime Minister of Pakistan to support Shah.

“Shah can once again make it to the Olympics if he is supported,” Hussain said. Meanwhile the other day Tokyo-based Amina Toyoda went down to Elalmi Hadeel of Jordan in the preliminaries of the -57 kologramme competitions. Both Shah and Amina will now come to Pakistan to join their Army team ahead of the National Championship.