WATCH: Judoka Sabir Shah wins gold medal in 10 seconds
Quetta: During the ongoing National Games in Quetta, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa judoka Sabir Shah won the gold medal by defeating Army’s Shan Ali in 10 seconds during the fight in the 90 kg category.
Despite being favourites, Ali was defeated by Shah in a surprising 10 seconds, winning the first gold medal in judo history for KP. National sport.
Shah defeated players from WAPDA, Balochistan and Police in the first rounds before reaching the final.
This is Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s second gold medal during the current National Games.
Shah along with Bahria’s Hamid will also represent Pakistan in an international judo event to be held in Russia next month.
Earlier, two-time Olympian judoka Shah Hussain said on Wednesday that he will not be able to participate in the upcoming Asian Games and 2024 Olympics qualifiers as he is not in a position to prepare accordingly.
“No, I have no plans to join the Asian Games or Olympics qualifiers,” Shah said. News In an informal interaction from Quetta where he is representing the Army in the Judo competition at the 34th National Games.
“The big problem is that preparing professionally for these events, especially the Olympics, is very expensive. I can’t afford to spend out of pocket right now,” Shah said.
Shah is the only Pakistani judoka in history to have participated in the Olympics and that too twice by qualifying for the world’s biggest extravaganza both times based on the continental quota. He did so at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
However, he failed to impress in both the Olympics. He began to feature in the 2024 Olympics qualifiers a few months ago and played in three consecutive events in Abu Dhabi, Perth and Baku, and performed well at the Perth Grand Prix to boost his world ranking. It happened and it shows that Shah will qualify easily. The Olympics. But due to financial constraints, the Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) was unable to send the country’s top lot, including Shah, to a few qualifying events. Although there is still a chance to qualify for the Olympics, Shah is not ready for the daunting task due to various reasons.
Shah now targets the South Asian Games, which Pakistan is scheduled to host early next year.