PJF to field leading fighters in Asian-Pacific Judo

KARACHI: Cash-starved Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) has decided to field a bunch of its leading fighters in the Asian-Pacific Judo Championships Seniors and Teams 2019.

The event will be held at Fujairah, United Arab Emirates (UAE), from April 20 to 23.“Yes, you know government is yet to release us grant but as Asian Championships is very much important so we have decided to send at least three fighters to Fujairah by seeking the support of some sponsors,” a senior official of PJF told ‘The News’ on Wednesday.

However the official was quick to add that the federation had been passing through financial crunch. The PSB has not been releasing grants to national federations for the last several months that has created a huge handicap in the way of the sports governing bodies to focus on the build-up of their athletes. The official said a few fighters had already been shortlisted for the purpose. He said that the final squad would be announced in the next four days. The official said that as Pakistan still had a chance to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, sending judokas to UAE for the continental event would help their fighters to improve their Olympics rankings.

The 2020 judo Olympic qualifiers have already started. Its first event was the World Championships which had been staged at Azerbaijan in August last year. Pakistan’s qualifying chances this time don’t seem to be perfect because of the financial issues. Japan-based Olympian Shah Hussain’s Olympic ranking has dropped to 151. He will need to improve it if he is to qualify for the Olympics which will be held in his hometown in Tokyo in 2020. However if he wins a medal in the Fujairah event then it could heavily improve his rankings. But the issue is that till May 2020 until the last qualifying round Shah would have to keep improving his ranking. It means he will have to feature in maximum qualifying rounds. His father and former Olympics bronze medallist Hussain Shah told this correspondent from Tokyo on Wednesday that he was very anxious for his son as the government of Pakistan was not financing the PJF.

“If my son did not feature in the UAE Asian Championships it will damage his qualifying chances for Olympics,” Hussain told The News.However the late decision of the PJF that it would send its cream to UAE is a blessing for Hussain Shah’s son. Shah Hussain had become the first judoka of Pakistan to have featured in the 2016 Rio Olympics after he had qualified on the continental quota.