KARACHI: Injury continues to dent Pakistan’s premier judoka Shah Hussain’s 2024 Paris Olympics qualifying chances. The Japan-based fighter has opted to skip the World Championships which will be held in May in Doha.
On the one hand Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) is facing financial crunch and is unable to support its fighters, especially Olympian Shah Hussain and on the other the knee injury has confused Shah. He does not know how to plan for the Olympics Qualifiers.
“It's not yet confirmed whether I will be able to prepare for the World Championships or not. But there is a major chance that I may not play in the global event,” Shah told ‘The News’ from Tokyo.
However, surprisingly he is willing to take part in the National Games which will be held in Quetta from May 15-23.
“I am injured but I think there will be no issue when it comes to National Games,” said Shah, also the 2014 Commonwealth Games silver medallist.
Shah asked this correspondent when the South Asian Games will be held and he did not talk about the Asian Games and Olympic Qualifiers which shows his body language is not encouraging.
Shah is the only Pakistani judoka to have featured in the Olympics – not once but twice. He made his Olympics debut in 2016 in Rio and then featured in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics which were held with a year's delay in 2021 due to covid issues. But in both the Olympics he fell in the first hurdle in the -100 kilogramme weight category.
He qualified for these Olympics on the basis of the continental quota. This time he has begun his Olympics Qualifiers run quite brightly. His feat in Perth a few months ago earned him valuable points which helped him ink his name in the top 100 for the first time in his new weight category of -90kg. It created for him a chance to feature in the World Championships in Doha as the top 100 fighters appear in the global event but the injury forced him to stay away.
After missing a few events in the last 60 days he also dropped two places in his rankings and now stands at 102 in the IJF world rankings. His Olympics ranking is 75. He needs to be among the top 40 to press for the Olympics seat on the basis of the continental quota.
Shah’s family sources told 'The News' that this time he does not look “serious” as far as Olympics are concerned.
Alam Zeb Safi Alam Zeb Safi is a senior reporter for The News