Pakistan Wrestling Federation plans to hold camp this month

KARACHI: Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) plans to hold a camp this month in order to kick-start its preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics qualifiers.

The PWF has requested Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) through a letter that the federation should be given a camp as soon as possible so that good preparation could be made for vital assignments.

An official of the PWF told 'The News' that they have requested the Board that it should be given a camp for 30 wrestlers and two officials at Lahore. The official said that the federation also wants to field four grapplers in the Asian Championship slated to be held in March at a venue yet to be decided.

"Yes it will be a long camp, which will cover the Olympic Qualifiers, and we also plan to field Mohammad Inam, Inayatullah, Mohammad Sharif Tahir and Mohammad Bilal in the continental event in March," the official said.

The official said that they are hopeful that the Board will give them a camp as soon as possible. "The Board has verbally told us that the camp will be held soon and we are waiting for its response in writing," the official said. A few days ago in an interview with this correspondent the premier wrestler Mohammad Inam also expressed his desire for a camp so that preparation for the Olympic Qualifiers could be started.

He said that Pakistani wrestlers need to appear in all ranking events so that they could improve their rankings which would help them when draws for the Olympic qualifiers were held.

The PSB Director General Col (Retd) Asif Zaman said the wrestling camp would be started in two to three days. “We will fully support the federation in its efforts,” he added. The United World Wrestling (UWW) has already released the 2024 Paris Olympics qualifying pathway. According to the pathway the Olympic Qualifiers time-frame will be from September 16, 2023, to May 12, 2024.

There will be a three-pronged qualification pathway, including 2023 World Championship, 2024 continental qualification and 2024 world qualification.

As many as 288 wrestlers will compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics — 192 men and 96 women. The 2023 Senior World Championship, which will run from September 16-24, will see five grapplers in each weight category qualifying for the Paris 2024.

The gold, silver and two bronze medallists will qualify along with the winner of the fight which will be played between the two bronze medal fights losers.

As per rules two bronze medals will be awarded via repechage process which will include all those grapplers who lose to the finalists. The World Championship will be followed by the 2024 continental qualification phase in which top two wrestlers in each weight category will make it to the Olympics. This event will be held from April 12-14 at a yet to be decided venue.

The last qualification tournament will be the 2024 world qualifying event which will run from May 9-12. The gold and silver medallists and the winner of the fight between the two bronze medallists will qualify.