CWG wrestling, boxing squads to bank on local training

KARACHI: Foreign training chances of national wrestlers and boxers have now ended and they will have to depend on local training to prepare for the Commonwealth Games slated to be held in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8.

“Yes, training chances in Iran have ended,” a senior official of Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) told 'The News' on Saturday.

The PWF had requested the PSB for backing the contingent during foreign training in Iran but the federation did not get any positive response from the state which forced it to go against the plan.

“Another big issue is that we were having 30 grapplers in the camp but the strength has been reduced now to 16 and it will hurt us a lot. We request Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) to allow us to keep the same 30 wrestlers in the camp until the contingent's departure for the Commonwealth Games,” the official said.

Ali Asad (67kg), Inayatullah (65kg), Mohammad Inam Butt (86kg), Sharif Tahir (74kg), Tayyab Raza (97kg) and Zaman Anwar (125kg) are set to represent Pakistan in the Commonwealth Games.

National wrestlers are training at the Punjab Group of Colleges hall in Lahore while they stay at the PSB Coaching Centre Lahore.

The PWF official also requested the PSB to manage tickets for wrestlers from Lahore so that it could save the precious time of the grapplers who are expected to get some medals in Birmingham.

Meanwhile, a senior official of Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) also confirmed that foreign training plan has been abandoned.

“Yes there is no chance of foreign training now because of several reasons,” a PBF official told this correspondent.

“We wanted to send fighters to Turkey but there are various external and internal problems and now we have decided not to go for that plan. We will now depend on local training,” the official said.

The official said that national pugilists are doing good training in Rawalpindi. “I visited the other day and saw training sessions. I am happy with the way the fighters are working and we are hopeful for some improved results in the Commonwealth Games,” he said.

As many as five boxers and two officials will be part of Pakistan's boxing squad for the Commonwealth Games.

The boxers are Zohaib Rasheed, Nazeerullah, Suleman Baloch, Ilyas Hussain and Mehreen Baloch.

Karachi-born Zohaib, who belongs to Navy, a few months ago won bronze in the Asian Under-22 Championship in Tashkent and he is the only fighter who has got some exposure recently. The rest of the lot is completely off-hand and coach Arshad Hussain will need to work extremely hard with his charges to train for the mega event.

The PBF official said that boxers will not be released for Eid-ul-Azha. “No, we have no time and they will spend eid in their training zone. We will provide them meat and everything,” the official said.