Five top Pakistani athletes have been sent to Nanjing to be trained by coaches there. But it seems it is not much helpful for Arshad Nadeem, our only medal hope at 2020 Olympics in Tokyo
Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) has sent five athletes to China for a couple of months training. The athletes, our best ones, are undergoing training in an indoor facility in Nanjing. They are Olympian Mehboob Ali, sprinters Uzair-ur-Rehman and Samiullah, 110-metre hurdler Mohammad Naeem, and the country’s record-breaking javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem.
During interaction with these athletes it was found that Arshad, who will represent Pakistan in this year’s Tokyo Olympics, may not benefit much from this tour as regards his preparation for the biggest challenge in Japan but for the rest it would be much better than if they were to train in Pakistan.
“I will check it for a few more days and then will be in a good position to say how helpful this is,” Arshad told ‘The News on Sunday’ (TNS) from Nanjing.
While others had flown to China on December 28, Arshad proceeded on January 10 due to domestic issues.
Arshad is an exceptional javelin thrower who made it to the Olympics through a record-breaking 86.29 metre throw in the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal in December.
“I don’t think training in China would help me much. Yes, the Chinese athletes may benefit from my presence,” Arshad said.
No doubt Arshad needs much more than his compatriots training there because his goal is much higher. The Mian Channu-born Arshad needs to be sent to Germany, Finland or any other strong athletics nation before the Olympics.
If it is not possible then hiring a very good javelin coach from Europe for a few months may help Arshad prepare well for the world’s most prestigious extravaganza.
Arshad can win an Olympics medal but for that he will need huge support. So far five players have qualified for Olympics and of them only Arshad has a medal chance in Olympics. So we should not waste this golden opportunity. There is immense politics in Pakistan’s sports. Prejudice and opposition is always there but we must overcome all hurdles to prepare this young man for the biggest challenge. I have been following the 2018 Asian Games bronze medallist Arshad for the last few years and I believe that he can do anything on a given day if he clicks.
Meanwhile, the other four athletes in Nanjing are enjoying their training and learning. “I have been learning here,” Olympian and 400-metre specialist Mehboob Ali said.
“Here we are doing indoor training and the facility is amazing. Here training is different. In Pakistan we don’t do such training. The coach told me that we are physically hard and tough but our timing is not that good. He has given us time. If we achieve that target, we can win gold at Asian level,” said Mehboob, who was part of Pakistan’s contingent during the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“I train twice a day and am solely focused on my job here. I want to take full benefit of the opportunity but the biggest issue is that when we return home at the end of February we will again train there in our own style. Our own coach’s presence here would have been great. He would also know about our training methodology here and then in Pakistan too we could have done this kind of training,” he said.
Chinese coaches train Pakistani athletes through interpreters.
In Nanjing, Pakistani athletes are also facing food issue. Although it is not that alarming I feel that if they don’t eat according to their requirements then they may face issues in keeping their top fitness.
There is a Muslim hotel close to where they are staying but the athletes don’t have money to overcome their diet deficiencies which is very important for them. I urge the AFP to manage some money in dollars and send it to the athletes so that they could meet their extra dietary requirements.
Now we come to Pakistan’s badminton issue. It’s the sport in which our country needs top-quality coaching as our standard is too low. If anyone followed Pakistani shuttlers’ performance against Indian players during the 13th South Asian Games in Nepal, they must have noticed that our players scored just a few points against their opponents.
But our sports culture is so bad that we don’t take care of any game other than cricket. A British badminton player Aamir Ghaffar recently visited Pakistan and in a bid to do something for Pakistan’s badminton he planned meetings with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sports minister Atif Khan and a few others. But nobody gave him time. It is highly unfortunate. Aamir, who basically belongs to Bannu, moved to England when he was a kid, got settled there and played top badminton for England for ten years. He is also London coach and being a level-II coach he has produced several England’s top-ranked shuttlers.
He wanted to open a high performance centre in KP and desired to open performance centres in the rest of the provinces. He wanted to link that with the schools and clubs in Europe.
He has a good plan to promote Pakistan’s badminton but nobody here is interested. Aamir knows that he is a real threat to the obsolete system of badminton in Pakistan and that was why no one takes him seriously.
When he returned to England a few days ago, he told me in a message that in Pakistan all are very busy in doing work for sports development. “They don’t have time for me,” he said.
This is indeed an unfortunate development. We should appreciate such people and pave way for them to do something for our sports. Aamir even told me that his system could be followed by other federations also.
Aamir also tried to meet IPC Minister but she was not in Islamabad in those days. If the relevant officials of the ministry happen to read this article they should contact Aamir and discuss with him the plan he has to develop badminton.
I believe that Pakistan Badminton Federation (PBF) will not accommodate him. But Aamir has made it clear that he will serve in Pakistan only if nobody interferes in his working.
73.alam@gmail.com