No medal yet again at Asian championship as Inam exits

KARACHI: Pakistan failed to break the 30-year-old medal jinx when the last hope Mohammad Inam also lost his fight against Saiakbai Usupov of Kyrgyzstan in the Asian Wrestling Championship in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Sunday.

In the 86 kilogramme quarter-final, Inam went 5-6 down in what was a gripping bout.

Inam lost the first round 0-5 and did well in the second round, winning it 5-1 but it was not enough for the country’s premier wrestler to give some good news to the nation.

“Inam was going well in the first round but got relaxed in the last 15 seconds and conceded four points which proved costly,” Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) vice-president Arshad Sattar told ‘The News’.

On Saturday, Mohammad Bilal fell at the first hurdle in the 57 kilogramme qualification stage against Sunggwon Kim of Korea.

Inayatullah lost two fights, first to an Iranian fighter in the qualification phase of the 65kg event before going down to a Japanese in the repechage fight.

Arshad said that Inayat was suffering from fever. He added that Inayat lost his first bout against the junior world champion but he should not have lost to the Japanese wrestler in his repechage show.

Pakistan had fielded three wrestlers in the continental event.

“You know the previous three years did not go well due to Covid and our players did not get ample exposure but we will learn from mistakes and will work over the weak points during the camp for the Commonwealth Games,” Arshad said.

“When these wrestlers return we will plan to manage a 40-day training tour of Kazakhstan and if it is done it will help our wrestlers learn more,” Arshad said.

Besides the Commonwealth Games, Pakistani wrestlers also have to compete in Islamic Games to be held in Konya, Turkey, and Asian Games which are pencilled in for September 10-25 in Hangzhou, China.

For the Mongolia championship, Inam and Inayat had been sent on April 7 and they were able to train alongside Asian nations for a couple of weeks.