Pakistan athletes set to return from Nanjing today

KARACHI: Pakistani athletes finally got a sigh of relief when it was confirmed they would return home on Thursday (today) from Nanjing, China, where they had been training since December.

Their training period was cut short due to outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan a few days ago. They were scheduled to train until the end of this month. The athletes have been provided their return tickets. They will reach Islamabad at 7pm.

Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) wanted to evacuate them much earlier but due to flight operation issue the athletes had to stay for a few more days. Olympian Mehboob Ali, Arshad Nadeem, Mohammad Naeem, Samiullah and Uzair-ur-Rehman are the athletes who had flown to Nanjing last year.

“We are all safe and happy that we are coming back,” an athlete told ‘The News’ from Nanjing on Wednesday. The return of the athletes will enable AFP to plan for javelin thrower Arshad who is being sent to Finland.

According to a source, Arshad will undertake a few foreign tours for training. The AFP will decide whether the 2018 Asian Games bronze medallist should be sent to South Africa where the coach is already working on some athletes.

If the option of South Africa is dropped then Arshad can be sent to Finland directly in March. Arshad is preparing for this year’s Tokyo Olympics. He has directly qualified for the world’s most prestigious event with an excellent throw of 86.29 metre at the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal last December.

Arshad, who had moved to Nanjing on January 10, was not satisfied with his training. An AFP top official told ‘The News’ a few days ago that he had been sent to China for some sort of outing as the federation had planned for him Finland’s tour.

Finland’s athletics centre is among the best in the world and Arshad will stay there until the Olympics. “We are calculating the things,” an AFP official told ‘The News’ the other day.