As was expected, national wrestlers put up a disappointing performance in the Paris Olympics Asian Qualifiers in Bishkek a few days ago.

All four grapplers failed to impress with only one wrestler winning just a single fight. Mohammad Asadullah was the only grappler who cleared the first hurdle when he downed Sri Lanka’s Wijesooriya Madushanka Lakmal 10-0 in the 74 kilogramme qualification round. However, he failed to impress onwards and was downed by Nurkozha Kaipanov of Kazakhstan 10-0 in the quarter-finals.

Meanwhile, the country’s experienced grappler Mohammad Bilal also gave a disappointing performance when he was undone 8-2 by Munkh Erdene Batkhuyag of Mongolia in the 57 kilogramme weight category qualification fight.

In the 65kg pre-quarter-final, rookie Mohammad Abdullah, who a few days ago made his international debut, also in Bishkek by featuring in the Asian Championship, went down to China’s Shaohua Yuan 3-3.

In the 125 kilogramme qualification fight, experienced Zaman Anwar lost to Yusup Batirmurzaev of Kazakhstan 11-0.

Pakistan’s seasoned wrestler Mohammad Inam skipped the event due to the injury which he received during training in Bishkek just ahead of the Asian Championship held a few days before the Asian Qualifiers.

In the Asian Championship, six wrestlers competed and all faced exit at the first hurdle.

This was the second opportunity which Pakistani wrestlers wasted and failed to earn a Paris Olympics seat. Last year in September in Serbia, they had failed to do well at the World Championship which was the first qualifying round for this year’s Paris Games.

Now our wrestlers have just one chance in the shape of the World Qualification event which will be hosted by Turkey in Istanbul from May 9-12.

We are just wasting money and time and are playing with the future of the wrestlers who have the potential to grow. I witnessed the trials conducted just before Ramadan to pick wrestlers for the above-mentioned two events.

I saw that there was a huge gap between the top seeds and the No2 wrestlers. And the question is: if you put the cream in the camp, with whom will they train? The only option is to send your top lot abroad for a few months training. It will help them to develop and prepare for such events.

The state and federation both are responsible for this debacle. If we are not ready then why do we send wrestlers to the Qualifiers?

It will be of no use. We will need to change our attitude and approach to sports. We will need to make a four-year plan to prepare our top lot for the Olympics Qualifiers. The plan must contain extensive foreign training stints, foreign coaches’ services, top diet, medical facilities besides meeting the financial needs of wrestlers and coaches. If we cannot do this then we should not talk about the Olympics as in that case we would not be ready and we would never qualify.

We saw so many nations of Asia, including India, who fielded their junior lot in the Asian Championship and senior lot in the Asian Qualifiers for Paris Games. It is because they want to groom their bench for the 2028 Olympics as part of their long-term plan. And what do we do? We start things only when the Qualifiers are just around the corner. We hold a few days’ camp just to give an impression that we are doing a great job and are giving a chance to our players in the Olympics Qualifiers.

This is not only the case of wrestling but in other sports disciplines too we are just wasting time. We cannot run our sports this way. We are just playing with the careers of the athletes.

In boxing we flopped due to the same flawed policy. When there is a will there’s a way. We don’t want our players to progress and our main focus is just to survive and do a little bit to avoid the wrath of the media and state authorities by giving the impression that we are doing our best.

I have been watching this for the last few decades. We go to the Olympics Qualifiers and return empty-handed because we are not ready and we don’t deserve it. How can you beat a nation which spends huge money on its athletes with its long-term plans.

Wrestler Inayatullah won bronze in the Youth Olympics a few years ago but where is he now? We easily say that he is not fit and is not focused. Why? It is the responsibility of the relevant authorities to keep their wrestlers engaged, keep them motivated and financially assisted and if such things are done then no one will lose resolve and focus.

We don’t offer a healthy environment to our players and most of them lose focus because they don’t see any future ahead.

Wrestling is highly competitive and in draws top seeds clash with low seeds in the initial rounds and it shows how ranking is important if you are to do something at the highest level.

Our wrestlers’ ranking is too low because we field them in one or two events in a calendar year.

We have huge talent in wrestling but we need to invest heavily in it. I firmly believe that no national wrestlers can qualify for the Paris Olympics even in the Istanbul event keeping in view their so far below-par performance in the World Championship and Asian Qualifiers. The authorities need to make a long-term plan backed by massive financial input from the state and corporate sector and prepare a budding lot for the 2028 Olympics.

We have gutsy young wrestlers and we should invest in them.

73.alam@gmail.com