PWF sends training plan for 14th SAG to PSB

KARACHI: Pakistan Wushu Federation (PWF) has prepared an ambitious training programme for the 14th South Asian Games which includes tours of China and Iran.

The PWF has sent the programme to the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and the federation is hopeful that the Board would cooperate. “I am optimistic that the Board will cooperate as for such events it supports training programmes of federations,” PWF President Malik Iftikhar told ‘The News’.

The programme time-frame is one and a half years. Initially, a camp, carrying 120 fighters (both male and female), will be set-up. After two months, the strength will be reduced to 60, then to 45 and then to 22 fighters.

“Then we will send around 15 top fighters to China for one-month training. We cannot keep more strength for that tour because ticket is expensive,” Malik said. “We will also engage a Chinese coach for that specific time period on the tour,” he was quick to add.

“For a couple of months tour of Iran which will be undertaken after the China trip around 30 fighters will be picked. We will go by road and will spend time in various states and feature in competitions and training before returning home 15 days before the start of the SAG,” Malik said.

“We will get better fighters in Iran. Their infrastructure is good as the country has merely 1000 platforms,” Malik said. “That tour will be crucial in the sense that we will assess every aspect of the fighters and will monitor how coaches deliver,” said Malik, who is also the president of South Asian Wushu Association.

He said that 11 men and four or five women would be fielded in the SAG eventually.

He also revealed that effort would be made to hire the services of a foreign woman coach for two months.

In 2019 South Asian Games in Nepal, Pakistan clinched three gold, four silver and four bronze medals in wushu.

Malik said that there was no need for a specific trainer for the team. “A simulation training is required and a coach can do this. There is no trainer concept in the book of the International Wushu Federation (IWF) because of the complex nature of wushu,” Malik said.

The PWF has also given its input to the PSB regarding the infrastructure preparation and renovation for the seven-nation competitions which Pakistan has already hosted two times before.

Pakistan will most probably hold the biennial spectacle in the early part of 2022.

As gyms have been reopened and the athletes have been allowed to train under SOPs it is expected that soon training camp would also be held for the wushu fighters.