Strong Pakistan Outfit To Contest At World Judo Championships In Japan

As part of its build-up campaign for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) will field a strong outfit to contest at the World Judo Championships 2019, taking place in Japan

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Jul, 2019 ) :As part of its build-up campaign for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) will field a strong outfit to contest at the World Judo Championships 2019, taking place in Japan.

"The flagship event, scheduled to be held at Nippon Budokan, Tokyo from August 22 to 28 will serve as a qualifier for the Tokyo Olympics. Hence, we've decided to field our four best judokas in it," Masood Ahmed, vice president of PJF told APP on Monday.

He said participation of Japan-based Shah Hussain Shan (-100kg) and Amina Toyada (-57kg) in the event was confirmed. "They are already in Japan and attending regular training sessions there. Besides them we will send to more judokas to contest at the championships. The Names of these two judokas will be finalized soon," he added.

Masood said in judo, world championships were considered the biggest event and winning a gold medal at them meant a direct entry to the Olympic Games. "But if an athlete claims silver or bronze medal at them, even then his ranking improves a lot and there remains a chance for him to perform well again at some other international event to make it to the Olympics," he said.

He said the federation was pinning high hopes on Shah Hussain and Amina due to the quality training they were getting in Japan. He said the federation could identify several home-based gifted athletes and prepare them for global relevance, but it was suffering from scarcity of funds.

"If we get the required support we can prepare a strong bunch of judokas, who can excel at the international level," he remarked.