Shah to begin medal quest with fight against Darwish today

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Olympian judoka Shah Hussain will be desperately looking to put in his best when he competes in the -100 kilogramme judo competitions of the Tokyo Olympics in the Japan capital on Thursday (today).

In the first round, he will face Egypt’s Darwish Ramadan who is World No13. The fight will start at 7am PST.

The first round is round 32. The whole competition of -100kg will be completed in a single day (on Thursday) as usual. If Shah is able to beat the Egyptian then he will face World No1 Varlam Liparteliani of Georgia in the second round.

This will be the second time that he will be featuring in the Olympics — he made a poor debut in 2016 in the Rio Games when he was undone by Ukraine’s Artem Bloshenko in the second round after Shah had got bye in the first round.

There will be a lot of medal pressure on Shah as he missed a few major events before the Olympics because of the travel issues created by Covid-19.

“Yes, pressure will be there as the event is tough,” Shah told ‘The News’ from Tokyo on Wednesday.

“You know we have to tackle the pressure and I will go all out to do my best,” Shah said.

Shah’s close friend and training partner Nagase Takanori of Japan the other day won gold in the -81 kilogramme competition.

Takanori and Shah also studied together in the Tsukuba University. When Shah was asked what his father Hussain Shah told him during his last call to him on Wednesday, Shah said he told him that he had worked hard and should play with full vigour in the event.

Hussain expects his son to give a stunning performance in the Olympics. “I expect a lot from my son. He has worked extremely hard and is very serious this time,” Hussain told ‘The News’.

“If he keeps his nerves, uses his skills well, then I am sure he will win. I wish for a successful day tomorrow. It would be a dream come true if he finished at the victory podium,” said Hussain, the 1988 Seoul Olympics boxing bronze medallist.

Pakistan Judo Federation’s (PJF) president Col Junaid told this correspondent that Shah had got tough draws, but was capable of doing well.

“No doubt he has got tough draws as he did not feature in a few events before Olympics. That denied him the chance to boost his ranking but he has experience and has worked hard for the last five years. I hope he will do better this time,” Junaid said.