My subjects of discussion today are the country’s premier equestrian Usman Khan and the Pakistan Under-16 volleyball team.

Usman once again made Pakistan proud when he topped the Group F of the FEI four-star event in Ireland a few days ago to blast his way into the 2024 Paris Olympics.

This is the second time that he has made it to the world’s most prestigious extravaganza, to be held in Paris next summer.

The Melbourne-based eventer had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in 2019 but his horse Azad Kashmir died and he had to revise the qualification. He did well in the Qualifiers again but met with an accident in Australia in the Qualifier when his horse Kasheer fell just before the finish line which resulted in his death and serious injuries to Usman who took months to recover.

Usman was left unconscious and was taken to hospital for treatment. When I broke the story of the unfortunate accident it shocked everyone who knew Usman and the hard work he had done for qualifying for the Olympics. But it was not his fate.

After this incident Usman went into oblivion. He recomposed himself and made a strong comeback with a new horse. He featured silently in events of various quality before pulling off a major breakthrough in Ireland which once again made Pakistan proud.

Usman will have to work harder to maintain his standings in the next few months during which he will play all of his four-star events in Europe.

Europe is extremely expensive for Usman, who is a son of a former Army officer. So far during his two years exploits in Europe he has spent around Rs90 million which is a huge amount.

Moving to various venues along with his horse, which is now an Olympian, various logistics matters and maintaining coaching staff are really hard for an individual athlete.

Usman definitely will need financial support from Pakistan’s government and corporate sector both at home and abroad. Pakistan’s embassies in Europe need to look after the Olympian who has been working hard for a couple of decades to hoist Pakistan’s flag in equestrian at the world’s major sporting event.

Equestrian is an extremely expensive sport and even purchasing a good horse is a matter of around a hundred million rupees these days.

It would be of high value if the Equestrian Federation of Pakistan (EFP) and our government backed the endeavours of Usman who is on a major mission.

Surprisingly, despite qualifying for the Asian Games, Usman is not being sent to feature in the quadrennial event. His entry has not been sent to the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) by his federation.

I think he should have been sent to China as the event could have helped him get more experience.

He is now a mature eventer and Pakistan should be proud of his achievements.

Let’s come to the Pakistan under-16 volleyball team. A few days ago Pakistan under-16 boys showed class performance and clinched the silver medal in the Central Asian Volleyball Association (CAVA) under-16 Volleyball Championship in Tashkent.

The team did so by beating strong Iran and Kazakhstan in the four-nation event.

Just after a few days the same colts finished fourth in the 1st Men’s Under-16 Asian Championship also in Tashkent.

They were unlucky to lose a bronze medal clash against Chinese Taipei whom they had beaten in the group stage in straight sets. Had Pakistan got the bronze medal they would have qualified for the Under-17 World Championship to be held next year.

Leaving an impression on their debut international events is really a great thing for Pakistan’s future in volleyball.

The authorities need to focus on this bunch which has great talent. They should keep giving this lot exposure and in the next few years most of them would be able to get to the national senior team which has been struggling in the Asian circuit for the last three decades — Pakistan finished fourth in the Asian Senior Championship in Seoul in 1989.

Pakistan under-16 team’s fall against Chinese Taipei in the bronze medal show was due to nutrition issues of the players. After talking to the players at a reception held in their honour by the authorities at Lahore Gymkhana a few days ago I was convinced that they did not get the required food which is needed for keeping the players energised especially when they had to play nine matches in a row.

The authorities should have given a lot of added diet as you cannot win pressure games without taking proper diet. The players kept eating pumpkins where they needed to take foods rich in protein, carbohydrates and also needed to get supplements.

I hope the Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) will look into this issue in future.

Another thing which I want to highlight here is that in the under-16 squad ten players were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while two were from Punjab.

The PVF should focus more on KP which has been feeding the national teams. It would be of high value if the PVF president came from KP, which is the hub of volleyball. I hope in the future PVF will consider these things.

I appreciate PVF which handed over Rs100,000 each to the players and officials of the under-16 lot following the successful tour of Tashkent. This must have instilled a new hope in the colts.

73.alam@gmail.com