Judoka Shah shines in Japan

KARACHI: Pakistan’s top judoka Shah Hussain earned the best player award for his superb performance in the Japan Inter-University Judo Championship which concluded the other day at Tokyo.
Shah successfully tackled top international judokas of Japan while representing Tsukuba University.
His father and former Olympic bronze medallist boxer Hussain Shah was happy with his son’s achievement. “My son became the best player of Japan,” Hussain Shah told ‘The News’ from Japan.
“He has been improving and one day I hope my son will become the best athlete of the world,” said Shah, who grabbed bronze for Pakistan in boxing in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
This is the only Olympic medal which Pakistan has won in boxing.
Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) appreciated the 2014 Commonwealth Games silver medallist and the former Asian Championship bronze medallist.
“The target of PJF is to wave the flag of Pakistan in 2016 Rio Olympics. And we are moving towards that. We are providing platform to Shah so that he could make it to Rio,” PJF said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Shah needs to feature in maximum events which are the only way through which he could claim a seat in Olympics. Shah had to miss the Pan American Open in San Salvador because of his engagement in Japan’s Inter-University Games but we are absolutely happy that he performed there,” the PJF added.
“Shah still has to feature in a few vital events which also includes the World Championship to be held at Astana from August 22-31. It is the most important event and a good show here could give a lot of boost to Shah’s qualifying chances,” the federation said.
Meanwhile, PJF chief Col Rana Shujaat Ali said federation would support all those players who are talented and can excel in the field.
The PJF secretary Masood Ahmed also congratulated Shah for his outstanding performance in the Japan’s inter-varsity competitions.
Shah is now 50th in the world and he will need to improve his ranking to 30 by the end of May 2016 if he wants to become the first Pakistani judoka to feature in the Olympics.