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Olympian boxer Jan Muhammad dies

August 04, 2012
KARACHI: Olympian boxer Jan Mohammad Baloch died here on Friday after protracted illness.
He was laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard at Mewa Shah amid moving scenes.
People from different walks of life attended his funeral prayer. He was 65 and has left behind a widow, five sons and four daughters to grieve his death.
The late boxer, who had got golden hand-shake from Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB) a few years ago, had been diagnosed with Hepatitis-C a year ago which ultimately led to liver cirrhosis.
The ever-smiling Jan Mohammad represented Pakistan at the 1972 Munich Olympics in the flyweight category. He had started playing boxing at the age of 10 and was enrolled with the Muslim Azad Boxing Club.
In 1972, he lifted his first gold at the National Championship in Lahore and he remained national champion in his weight category till 1979.
He made his international debut during the 9th Commonwealth Games held in Edinburg in 1970 and also participated at the 1978 Jakarta Asian Boxing Championship.
In the 1976 Quaid-e-Azam International Boxing tournament held here, Jan Mohammad got silver medal. In 1975, he captured gold medal in the RCD Boxing Championship in Ankara.
His colleagues say that although Jan did not clinch many medals at international level but he was a fine boxer. “Although he may not have lifted more international medals, altogether he was a fine boxer,” his colleague Ali Akbar Shah told ‘The News’.
“Jan had an ever-smiling face which had a magical impact on those who used to meet him. He was not a proud man,” recalled Shah, who is also the chairman of Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF) Referees/Judges Commission.
After quitting boxing in 1979, Jan started coaching and rendered meritorious services in the field in preparing national boxers who won medals for the country at the Asian Games, South Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the Olympics. Jan, who faced financial difficulties in the later part

of his life, also worked with several great Pakistani and foreign coaches, including Major Rasheed, Anwar Pasha, Carlos Evin, Ismael Salas and Julian.
Many of his pupils achieved quite a few milestones, including Olympian Rasheed Baloch, Hussain Shah, Asghar Ali Changezi, Usmanullah, Zaigham Maseel and Abdul Majeed Brohi. Japan-based Hussain Shah won the first Olympic bronze for the country in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
The deceased also served Railways, Navy and Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC).
Jan was the founder of RCD Boxing Club which is still in operation at the Nishtar Road.
“It’s a great loss. He was a fine boxer and wonderful coach,” PBF secretary Akram Khan said.
PBF Presdient Doda Khan Bhutto and Sindh Boxing Association (SBA) secretary Asghar Baloch condoled the death of the Olympian.