LAHORE: Perseverance and steely resolve once again paid dividends as the country’s premier eventer Usman Khan on Sunday blasted his way into the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Usman achieved the milestone in the FEI four-star event in Mallow, Ireland, on Sunday. “By the grace of God Almighty Pakistan has secured the Paris Olympic Qualification in Mallow, Ireland,” Usman told ‘The News’ in a message from Ireland after putting the country once again in the world’s most prestigious extravaganza.
It is the result of two years hard labour. After fate denied him an opportunity to feature in the Tokyo Olympics despite qualification, Usman did not lose heart. He took time in recovery from an accident he had met with just before the finish-line at the Tokyo Olympics Qualifiers in May 2021 in Australia and began his quest for another milestone almost two years ago. And it was the soil of Ireland which proved lucky for the star equestrian where he earned Paris Olympics qualification.
“I worked extremely hard for achieving this milestone,” Usman told this correspondent. “Unlike the Tokyo Olympics this time my Olympics berth quest was characterised by solid approach, the experience I had of playing at such a high level, quality coaching team, and, no doubt, my horse which is the integral part of the whole journey,” Usman said.
“Our trainers Pierre DeFrance and Aurelie Riedweg have worked tirelessly for the last one and a half years,” Usman revealed. “With 12 months to go we need more prayers of the nation,” he said.
Usman will now have to compete at the four-star level for the coming one year and will need to maintain his standing.
Pakistan is the first nation in Group F which qualified for the Olympics. Usman has been in Europe for the last couple of years.
As per Olympics qualification rules a four-star long MER is needed for the Olympics together with four-star short format MER and three-star long format MER.
“We have secured them by the grace of Allah,” Usman said.
In 2019, Usman became the first equestrian of Pakistan to qualify for the Olympics. But unfortunately Usman’s horse Azad Kashmir died in September 2020. It meant Usman had to revise his qualification with his new horse Kasheer. But the duo met with an accident just before the finish-line in the Olympics Qualifiers in Australia which resulted in the death of Kasheer. Usman also sustained serious injuries and was shifted to hospital. He took months to recover.
“Those were hard days,” Usman recalled. “It was extremely difficult to recompose myself but God helped me and now again we are in the world’s major event,” he said.
“The job is not yet done. We will need to work harder as we will have to compete with major nations of the four-star level during the next one year,” Usman said.
Had Usman and Kasheer not met with that serious accident they could have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.
This correspondent has learnt that Usman is managing huge expenses of his Europe’s stay, coaching facilities and horse expenses, including its transportation to off-shore venues which costs him thousands of Euros.
Usman had also qualified for the 19th Asian Games slated to be held in Hangzhou, China, from September 23 to October 8 but surprisingly his name is not in the national contingent’s list which was leaked by the authorities to a section of the media a few days ago.
