Qaiser starts training in Mongolia

KARACHI: The country's star judoka Qaiser Afridi on Wednesday started training in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, which is set to host Grand Slam from June 24-26.

“Yes, Qaiser reached Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday and has started training with the fighters from other countries,” a senior official of Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) told 'The News' on Wednesday.

“He will train there for nine days before featuring in the Grand Slam which is also the first qualifying round for the 2024 Paris Olympics,” he added.

This will be the first time that Qaiser will show his mettle in the Grand Slam. Qaiser, who last year got bronze in the Asia-Oceania Championship in Beirut, will be joined by three more Pakistani fighters in Mongolia in the next few days who will also feature in the Grand Slam.

“We have made a couple of replacements, bringing in Mohammad Hamid (+100kg) in place of the injured Olympian Shah Hussain and Mohammad Hasnain (-66kg) in place of Aqash, who has now been put in reserves. Haseeb Mustafa (81kg) is the other fighter who will go to Mongolia.

We have requested the government for NOCs and if we get them tomorrow then we will immediately send them to Mongolia,” the official said.

“These three fighters along with Qaiser and Shah Hussain are also in Pakistan's Islamic Games squad and our main aim is to give them exposure ahead of the Islamic Games,” the official said.

Islamic Games are slated to be held in Konya, Turkey, from August 9-18.

Shah Hussain skipped the Mongolia Grand Slam because of a knee injury.

The PJF official said that he had a word with Shah a few days ago and he was confident that he would recover well before the Commonwealth Games, pencilled in for July 28 to August 8 in Birmingham.

Qaiser and Shah will represent Pakistan in the Commonwealth Games.

The PJF official revealed that the federation is not sending any fighter to the Grand Slam to be held in Hungary from July 8-10.

“The basic reason behind this decision is that Shah is injured and Qaiser is not likely to get Hungary visa as his visa had previously been rejected three times. In future maybe he gets it once he visits some more countries,” the official said.

He said that Mongolia's tour of national fighters is state-funded. If everything goes well then it will help the fighters to prepare well for the Islamic Games, he added.

The basic purpose behind PJF's move to send a four-member lot to Mongolia is to groom them before the hectic Olympic qualifiers which will be a two-year long race until the middle of the Olympics year in 2024.

“Yes, we are planning like that. The Islamic Games will be a testing phase for all these fighters going to Mongolia. If they click there then they certainly will be on our radar for the Olympics qualifiers. Let's see how it goes,” the official said.

Pakistan is likely to field five fighters in the Islamic Games. Initially the PJF wanted to field six fighters. It's surprising that no woman fighter is part of the Islamic Games squad.

“It's really frustrating for us that there is no woman fighter in the Islamic Games contingent,” a woman fighter told this correspondent.

The PJF initially had put women fighters in the camp in Quetta, but when the camp was shifted to Islamabad women were excluded from the camp. Now the men's camp is in operation in Abbottabad under Iranian coach Sajjad Kazmi. Hamid, Hasnain and Haseeb are also in the Abbottabad camp. The camp was shifted to Abbottabad from Islamabad on May 24 in the wake of the PTI long march.