ISLAMABAD, Nov 27 (APP):Pakistan’s top Judoka Shah Hussain Shah has climbed five more positions to 39th spot in the Olympic Rankings, the highest ever any South Asian Judoka could earn.
In his pursuit for the place for Tokyo 2020, playing in Osaka Grand Slam, Shah Hussain ascended to 39th position in recently updated Olympic ranking list, said a press release issued here.
Shah Hussain, who was previously at 44th position in Olympic qualifying ranking with 746 points, lost against world number 4 and world champion of 2017 Aaron Wolf from Japan in the pre quarterfinals.
He secured 160 points in the contest and has accumulated 904 points thus far ahead of his Asian continent rivals.
Col (R) Junaid Alam, President Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) said the federation was giving all-out support to Shah Hussain for his Olympic run. “We are not sending any other judoka anywhere besides Shah,” he said.
He said Judo qualifying for Olympics was unlike other sports as there only 3 to 4 Olympic qualifiers, contested by an athlete or a team.
“A federation has to field a judoka in maximum number of International Judo Federation (IJF) Calendar events of last 2 years qualifying period with each having different weightage,” he explained.
“If you miss any event the others get full benefit and gets a chane to improve ranking. In the last four months, Shah was sent to participate in 7 different championships round the globe.”
He said PJF has planned to send Shah to a 6 weeks tour of Europe from February to March where he would not only attend the IJF training Camp but will also participate in all grand prix and grand slam tournaments.
“There was no support from any quarter so far despite so many requests to all concerned,” he said.
