close
Thursday March 28, 2024

PWF seeks govt help for winning Olympic medals

By Alam Zeb Safi
August 07, 2019

KARACHI: A senior official of Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) on Tuesday said if the state focused on wrestling for ten years constantly then he could guarantee that the nation would start lifting medals in Olympics.

“Pakistan is brimming with such a huge talent that if the state keeps financing the sport for ten constant years and the sport is run on scientific basis then I can guarantee that the nation will begin lifting medals in Olympics,” PWF secretary Arshad Sattar told ‘The News’ in an interview.

“Look at India. It has rich talent in Haryana and we have the same in some parts of Punjab. But India has focused on wrestling and if you see its record in any major event it has got medals both in male and female categories,” Arshad pointed out.

“And India has strengthened the area so much that this time it will win more medals in next year’s Tokyo Olympics,” Arshad said.He said when Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera was Director General of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) he used to give them constant camps and that had yielded good results.

“Because of those constant training camps in Ganjera’s tenure as DG PSB Pakistan had started pulling off medals in various competitions,” the official said.“Look, Inayatullah won bronze in Youth Olympics and he was given Rs5 million by the state. He belongs to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and his feat and the reward he got as a result will motivate the youth in his area,” Arshad said.

He said in June the government gave PWF Rs 1.5 million, adding, around Rs800,000 was deposited with various international bodies as entry fee and the rest of the amount even could not meet the expenses of Mohammad Inam’s two tours.

About the preparation for South Asian Games Arshad said that the federation wrote few times to the PSB for camp but so far no positive response had been received.“I request the PSB to hold our camp as soon as possible. We are to feature in the World Championships, World Beach Games, South Asian Games and in 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualifiers,” Arshad said.

He said the PWF had no power to hold camp on its own because of lack of sponsors.He said that Strawberry Sports Management had agreed to launch professional wrestling in Pakistan by November 2020.

“A week ago I held a meeting with the company’s chief executive. He told me that he would hold wrestling league in August-September next year. I told him that the weather would not be good. I told him that he should launch it in October-November 2020 and he responded positively,” he said. “If the professional league is held then it will help federation to earn around Rs7 million per year which will help it a lot,” Arshad said.

The PWF and Starwberry Sports Management agreement had been finalised in 2016 for ten years.The company has only held so far kabaddi league and is working on holding leagues of other sports disciplines.About premier wrestler Mohammad Inam Arshad informed that he had developed knee injury.

“Inam had developed knee injury which forced him to take some rest. Now he has resumed his exercise and is working hard to regain top fitness as he has to feature in the World Beach Games to be held in October in Qatar,” Arshad conceded.

The World Beach Games were scheduled to be hosted by San Diego but shifted to Doha. Inam will be the only Pakistani athlete who will be representing the nation in the inaugural global event.