Inam hopes to continue winning medals in next three years

KARACHI: With loads of medals in major international events to his credit Pakistan seasoned wrestler Mohammad Inam aims to win several more medals during the next three years during which many international events will be held.

“I am working on my fitness as the next three years of my career are very important. InshaAllah I will win many medals for the country in these years,” Inam told ‘The News’ in an interview hours after returning from Almaty where he clinched a bronze medal in the Asian Qualifying round for the Tokyo Olympics.

“In the next three years there are to be so many events. There will be Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, Pakistan will be hosting South Asian Games, Indoor Asian Games, Islamic Games and several beach wrestling events. It is very important for me to play these events and win medals for the country,” the two-time World Beach Wrestling Championship winner said.

“Currently the things are going well. I won bronze in the Olympic Games Asian Qualifier. I beat a Kyrgyzstan grappler who is very good — Olympics-quality athlete,” Inam said.

Inam is currently 32 and it seems that he is in the twilight of his career. However, he says that numbers (years) are not counted but fitness is. “Your future plan depends on your fitness. India’s Sushil Kumar is playing at 37 years of age. In the Olympics too you can see wrestlers above 35 years. I think if we focus on fitness instead of looking at the age then I hope I can achieve some wonders in the next three years,” said Inam, the 2010 and 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist.

Inam said that currently Pakistan’s wrestling structure is broken. He added it is very important for the state to support the sport in which the country has immense potential.

“The whole wrestling structure has collapsed. After the 2018 Asian Games not a single national camp has been held so far. For the last two years, the federation has not been given by the state a single penny. The cash-starved federation has been forced to pay its annual fee of the United World Wrestling (UWW). And now the performance which me and Bilal have produced in Almaty is the result of training we did in the wrestling arenas where we trained on our own and we directly went to the Asian Qualifiers from there,” Inam said, who also has to his credit World Games title.

Inam said the best way to promote wrestling is to keep the top grapplers engaged throughout in a standard environment. “Looking at our future events it would be of great help if we held a national-level camp for the top wrestlers under home-grown coaches and conduct a six-month session in Pakistan. And then in the second session from three to six months you get a foreign coach and the cream among the wrestlers are sent abroad for training. If such a strategy is adopted then I think the standard will rise,” Inam said.

Talking about plan-B, Inam said if the state cannot afford it then it should facilitate at least leading wrestlers ahead of the coming events.

“If the government has no money to spend on wrestlers then it should at least focus on three wrestlers including me, as I won bronze in Asian Qualifiers recently, Bilal, who beat a strong Kazakhstan wrestler and Inayatullah, the Youth Olympic Games bronze medallist. Then I hope we will produce desired results in the international circuit during the next three years.

“We can even target the next Olympics. If we do so we will be able to also impress in the other events which come before the Olympic Games 2024,” Inam said.