LAHORE: Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) is mulling an option to bring in Tokyo-based Olympian judoka Shah Hussain as a coach to train the national fighters for this year’s Asian Games pencilled in for September 23 to October 8 in Hangzhou, China.
“Yes we plan to bring in Shah to train our fighters for the Asian Games,” PJF vice-president Masood Ahmed told 'The News'.
“Shah is also willing to work with us but we will seek his final word and about the time-frame for which he will be able to come to Pakistan and train judokas.
“It would be of great help if he is able to give us two months. He is an experienced fighter and has been groomed in the top judo environment in Japan."
Shah opted to skip the Asian Games due to knee injury.
He is expected to return to international circuit during the South Asian Games which Pakistan is supposed to host in early 2024.
Masood said that the PJF wants to field four men’s fighters in the Asian Games.
“We want to field four judokas in the Asian Games and one will be kept as reserve. We want to field fighters in +100kg, -100kg, -90kg and one will be from 73kg, -81 and 70kg," he said.
“We have forwarded our entries to the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for further transfer to the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA). We don’t know yet about the confirmation."
A camp, featuring 24 fighters, is currently in operation at the PSB Coaching Centre Peshawar. There are 14 senior men’s and four junior men’s judokas and six girls. Coaches Yasir Khan from Army and Ayatullah from WAPDA are supervising the camp.
Our Correspondent