Pak judokas fail at Mongolia

KARACHI: Pakistan's judo journey in the Grand Slam in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on Sunday ended without any success when their two major fighters Qaiser Afridi and Hamid Ali also fell at the first hurdles.

The two heavyweight fighters played in contrasting ways with Qaiser showing great valour against Batkhuyag Gonchigsuren of Mongolia in the -100 kilogramme competitions. However Hamid did not show anything of top quality against the seasoned Tasoev Inal of Russia, who won the final also.

It was Qaiser who was dominating the show but failed to notch the win, which could have been a major upset.

“Yes Qaiser played top judo and had he been successful in his final technique he could have won the game,” a senior official of Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) told 'The News'.

“It's a positive sign that he showed his valour, did not feel any sort of fear and was attacking when his rival was totally on the defensive,” the official said, adding they hoped that experience would help Qaiser pull off better results in the Commonwealth Games.

Qaiser also seemed to be happy with his fight.

“If you see the fight you will feel how positive I played. I think it was a good experience and it will help me a lot during the Commonwealth Games where I need to pull off a medal,” Qaiser said.

Qaiser's opponent Batkhuyag fell in his next fight against Fenseca Jorge of Portugal.

Meanwhile Hamid lost his +100kg fight against Tasoev Inal of Russia.

Inal gave no opportunity to Hamid to do anything. Inal then went on to beat Netherland's Meyer Roy in the final in 11 seconds to lift another Grand Slam title.

The country's third judoka Haseeb Mustafa had already lost his -81kg fight to Uzbekistan's Allaberdiev Ramazon on Saturday.

Pakistan had fielded three fighters in the Grand Slam which also served as the first qualifying round for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Pakistan squad will return home on Tuesday and will then join camp being in operation at Abbottabad under the Iranian coach Sajjad Kazmi.