Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) will be looking for a new national coach after bidding farewell to Iran’s Sajjad Kazemi as the country will be preparing for the 2017 Bahamas Commonwealth Youth Games that will take place in July.

According to PJF vice-president Masood Ahmed, the International Judo Federation (IJF) has agreed to help Pakistan find a foreign coach to train the team. So far, Kazemi was guiding the players and stayed in Peshawar for three years, during which he trained upcoming talents like Qaisar Afridi among others.

“The IJF has agreed to find us a coach and that is very encouraging,” Ahmed said Saturday. “We have asked the IJF to help us with a foreign coach and they will be forwarding the details next month. Ideally, we will want the coach to come to Pakistan for training our youth team for Commonwealth Youth Games and our major category will be -80kg for this event.” Ahmed added that the IJF will be helping with the funds as well, as the PJF can only pay only US$2500, which was also Kazemi’s monthly remuneration. The PJF has asked the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) to continue sending the amount for the next coach too.

“Kazemi was a great coach and a person,” said Ahmed. “He did a very good job with the youngsters here. Our next top youth player Qaisar has improved a lot thanks to Kazemi. He was hired at US$1500 but we increased it to US$2500 as most international coaches take at least US$4000.” He added: “Now the IJF has assured us that the coach that they will send to Pakistan will be paid partly by them but we need to continue the US$2500 fee, therefore we’ve asked the PSB to look into the matter.” Meanwhile, the National Judo Championship will take place next month and Ahmed said that the PJF would be looking for new talent that can be groomed for the Youth Games.