Shah narrowly misses bronze medal at Asia-Pacific Judo

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, which had 21 fighters. However, his three victories would help Shah grab points, which will help him in his quest for an Olympic berth.

Earlier on Monday, Shah began his journey in a fine way when he defeated world junior champion Sekine Kiyotaka of Japan in the preliminaries.

He 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, 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 anywhere can fight like this it shows that he has all the talent but he needs support,” Hussain said.

“Why are we 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 for his quest for Olympic qualification,” Hussain said.

He requested the Prime Minister of Pakistan to support Shah. “He can once again make it to the Olympics if he is supported,” Hussain said.

The other day, Tokyo-based Amina Toyoda went down to Elalmi Hadeel of Jordan in the preliminaries of the -57 kologramme competitions. “It was a tough fight. Amina played too well but eventually lost her fight,” a senior official of Pakistan team told this correspondent from Fujairah. Shah and Amina will now come to Pakistan to join Army ahead of the National Championship.