Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan will be sending three athletes to the Judo Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi starting from October 26, but Olympian Shah Hussain Shah will not be a part of the trio. The aforementioned Grand Slam, which will be national judokas’ first international outing after the Olympics, will be a good opportunity for the players to gain International Judo Federation points (IJF), as per Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) official Masood Ahmed.

The three-member touring party will include Qaisar Khan Afridi (81 kg), Nadeem Akram (73kg) and Japan-based Wajahat Sarwar (-100 kg). “It is a relatively easy tournament. Most of the top athletes are resting and it will be a good opportunity for our judokas to win some medals,” Ahmed said. “Qaisar is a young talent with a lot of potential, while Sarwar has been training in Japan. We also made sure that we send two Pakistan and Japan-based athletes each.”

He further said that Shah opted out of the event as he wanted to rest after a rigorous experience at the Rio Olympics, where he became the first Pakistani to compete in the judo event. “He requested us to give him a break for this event. Since most of the athletes in the IJF top 40 rankings aren’t competing, maybe he thought he should take a break as well,” opined Ahmed. “But we want him to compete in December at the last international judo event of the year in Japan.” Meanwhile, female judoka Amina Toyoda was also supposed to compete in the women’s 57kg event, but she pulled out yesterday citing an injury.