PSB Disappointed For Smallest-ever National Olympics Contingent

ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th july,2016) : Pakistan Sports board (PSB) is disappointed to see the smallest-ever national Olympics contingent going to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil saying this time our hockey team didn't make it to the mega event. Pakistan will be sending the smallest-ever national Olympics contingent to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and that too consisting of more officials than the athletes. A 19-member contingent will represent the country in the 2016 Olympics scheduled to be held from August 5 to 21.

The 19-member Pakistan contingent will include seven athletes and 12 officials. For the first time in the history, the national hockey team would not feature in the mega event because it failed to qualify for the quadrennial sports spectacle and mainly the Pakistani athletes participating in the Olympics have got entry through wildcard or continental quota system. The athletes to chip in the Olympics include swimmers Lianna Swan and Haris Bandey, judoka Shah Hussain, shooters Ghulam Mustafa and Minhal Sohail and two sprinters.

Talking to APP, Director General, Dr.

Muhammad Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera, said our national hockey team has always qualified for the Olympics but it is very unfortunate that this time it couldn't make it to the mega event. "Besides hockey only once our boxer Hussain Shah qualified for the Olympics in 1988 and won bronze medal," he said. Speaking about other sports activities, he said our federations lack in technical officials.

"We try our level best to call in international experts here to train our coaches, officials etc," he said. He said we recently held a Taekwondo course in which 200 officials were called in and a foreign expert imparted training to them. "We are also trying our best to conduct activities at grass- root level," he said.