imageShah Hussain, the son of Pakistan’s Olympic medal winning boxer was the only hope for Pakistan to shine in the Games, qualified for Rio on continental quota basis by making enough points as world number 55.

Unfortunately, Pakistan’s Shah Hussain Shah lost 100-0 to Ukraine’s Artem Bolshenko in men’s -100kg last 32 round of judo and became the third Pakistani to bow out on his first appearance at the Rio Olympics 2016. He was the best competitor in Pakistan’s seven-member group to win a medal. But Hussain’s eviction has broken Pakistan’s hopes to secure a medal.

Hussain was the only athlete who makes a place at the coveted multi-sports event under continental quota. Earlier, shooter Minhal Sohail and swimmer Haris Bandey also failed to perform and bowed out in first rounds. Moreover, for the first time in Pakistan’s history, Pakistan’s hockey team is not participating in the Olympic event, as they are not being qualified.

According to local media, Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) secretary Masood Ahmed is confident that Shah will have a memorable outing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. “He lost, but it’s definitely not the end for us, we hoped he would make it to the quarter-finals, but the defeat is certainly a lesson to do better in the future. Shah had chosen a wrong strategy; he should have played more defensively against the Ukrainian. But we know he will learn from this loss and will now be better prepared to take on opponents at such a huge stage.”

Today, Pakistani shooter Ghulam Mustafa Bashir will take part in Men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol event and swimmer Lianna Swan will be seen in Women’s 50m freestyle. Athletes Mehboob Ali and Najma Parveen will also be participating in athletics event

Copyright Business Recorder, 2016

Comments

Comments are closed.