ISLAMABAD:With an eye on Paris 2024, Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) has decided to field its top judokas in a series of Olympics qualifying rounds before the year end to help them amass crucial points for the coveted event.
“Yes, we’ve decided to focus on our three key fighters – Hamid Khan (+100kg), Qaisar Afridi (-100kg) and Japan-based Shah Hussain Shah (-90kg). These judokas have great potential and we believe each of them can make a cut to Olympics. Hence, will be trying our best to provide them opportunities and will field them at least in four events in the next three months,” Masood Ahmed, vice president of PJF told reporter on Tuesday.
According to Masood, the four upcoming events include Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, taking place from October 21-23, Perth Oceania Open 2022 from October 29-30, Baku Grand Slam from November 4-6 and Tokyo Grand Slam from December 3-4. He said Iranian coach Sajjad Kazmi and a PJF official would also accompany the judokas during the qualifying rounds. “We believe their presence at the qualifying round will help the judokas to perform better,” he said.
Currently, PJF’s training camp for national judokas is underway at Pakistan Sports Complex Islamabad under the supervision of Sajjad. “As many as 14 men and six women judokas are attending the camp. The athletes doing well in the camp will get a chance to represent the country in next year’s South Asian Games and Asian Games,” he added.
“The IJF (International Judo Federation) has declared Perth Oceania Open equal to Grand Prix. This will offer a perfect opportunity to our judokas to collect maximum points by exhibiting good performance and brighten their chances to earn Paris tickets by improving their rankings,” he maintained.
The PJF vice president said that the federation had written Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for the issuance of no objection certificates (NOCs). “We are also looking towards PSB for the financial support to send the national judokas and coaches for the qualifying rounds.
“We need around eight million rupees to send our athletes for these key qualifying rounds. But it will not be possible for us to ensure their participation in these events without PSB support.
“A number of more Olympic qualifying events will be taking place next year, but we’ll plan about them later on as initially we are focused only on this year’s events,” he added.
He said the federation was still waiting for the reimbursement of its remaining amount of Mongolia Grand Slam, held from June 24 to 26 at Ulaanbaatar.
The quotas for Paris 2024 will be allocated in line with the IJF World Ranking list during the Olympic Qualification period. It means all World Tour events held between 24 June 2022 and 23 June 2024 will impact the quota allocation. At the end of this period, for each of the seven weight categories, the top 17 countries represented in the world ranking will each receive a quota.