KARACHI: Without support from the state in their preparation at a crucial stage, a four-member Pakistan wrestling contingent, three wrestlers and a coach, will fly out of Lahore for Astana on Tuesday (today) to feature in the Asian Wrestling Championship which is in progress in the Kazakhstan’s capital.
The wrestlers are Youth Olympics bronze medallist Inayatullah (70 kg), Mohammad Bilal (57 kg) and newcomer Nouman Zaka (86 kg). They will be accompanied by coach Ghulam Fareed. The event is very important in the sense as it will make Pakistan eligible to feature in the World Wrestling Championship in September in Serbia. The global event will also serve as the 2024 Paris Olympics Qualifiers.
The wrestlers mostly trained on their own in their respective cities as there was no government-funded centralised camp as there used to be in the past for such a major event. Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) had set up a wrestling camp but surprisingly stopped it on February 9. And that broke the whole preparation tempo. Due to lack of support from the government, Pakistan Wrestling Federation (PWF) involved Lahore’s local wrestlers for sparring purposes for around 25 days but it was not too helpful as they needed top-ranked boys for sparring with the Astana-bound wrestlers and it could have been made possible only in a state-funded camp.
“Yes, definitely the desired training could not be done,” coach Ghulam Fareed told ‘The News’.
“The boys trained together for around 25 days in Lahore besides having done workout in their own cities. You know when you don’t have tough sparring partners then you cannot train perfectly.
“I requested the PSB to put ten to 15 top wrestlers in the camp but it did not,” the coach lamented. “There should have been four to five months camp for the Asian Championship.
He said that Inayat has a solid chance of a medal.
“Still we are confident that our grapplers will do their best in the continental event. Inayat has a 100 percent chance. And then come Bilal and Nouman. So hopefully the result will not be bad,” Fareed said.
The country’s seasoned wrestler Mohammad Inam has chosen to skip the event due to his scheduled participation in a coaching course in Budapest, Hungary. However, he will return to the squad for the World Championship in September. Nouman Zaka is being sent to Astana in his place.
On Wednesday there will be weigh-in session and on Thursday and Friday competitions in freestyle wrestling will be held. Inayat and Bilal will play on April 13 and Nouman Zaka the following day. The Asian Championship is a prelude to the wrestlers’ Olympic journey. There is a three-pronged qualification system for the 2024 Olympics in wrestling. The qualification journey will begin with the World Championship which will be held in Serbia in September.
Alam Zeb Safi Alam Zeb Safi is a senior reporter for The News