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Thursday March 28, 2024

PSB receives athletes’ names for Covid-19 vaccination

By Abdul Mohi Shah
May 18, 2021

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has received a tentative list containing the names of 23 athletes and officials for their timely vaccination to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics starting from July 23.

The list includes those athletes who have already qualified for the Games directly or have realistic chances of making it to the mega event. The list also includes names of wildcard holders. Three shooters and an official have already got vaccinated. Others residing abroad including equestrian Muhammad Usman will get vaccinated in their respective country.

Besides Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) Dr Fehmida Mirza, other names in the list are Mohammad Zaheer Akhtar (judo), Asad Abbas Shah and Mohammad Nasir Ijaz Tung (POA), Arshad Nadeem, Najma Parveen, Syed Fiaz Hussain Bokhari and Shagufta Noreen (athletics), Dr Farooq Ahmed (equestrian official), Mohammad Farrukh Nadeem (shooting official), Bismah Khan, Syed Mohammad Haseeb Tariq, Ahmed Ali Khan, Mubashara Bano Raza (swimming); Saadi Ghulam Abbas (karate), Haroon Khan and Shamim Akhtar (taekwondo), Muhammad Islam Natiq, Khawaja Muhammad Tufail and Mohammad Amin (weightlifting) and Hafiz Mohammad Akram, Abid Aslam and Abdul Sattar (wrestling).

“These all athletes and officials are in line to be part of the Pakistan contingent for Tokyo Olympics. There are a few Olympic qualification events yet to be completed. The actual strength of the contingent will be known once the qualification round completes. The whole contingent to the Olympic Games would be around 30,” a POA official said.

The IOC has already communicated to all the national Olympic committees that the required vaccination would be made available on demand.

“We have been asked by the PSB to furnish detail of athletes and officials for vaccination purposes which we have forwarded to the government,” the POA official said. Summer Olympics will be followed by Paralympics starting from August 24, 2021, also in Japan. Apart from the two major events, Beijing (China) will also host the Winter Olympics in February 2022.

“The IOC offer for vaccination of athletes is only for all the international mega-events to be held under its banner. The provision of the vaccination is subject to the non-availability of vaccines within the country. The IOC hopes that campaign within each country would prefer vaccination of leading athletes especially those who are to compete in international events. In case, the respective governments fail to comply, the IOC would come forward and arrange for the Covid-19 vaccination of all the leading athletes and support staff planning to compete in these international events.”