July 7, 2003	Monday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 6,1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 6: Pakistan’s Ahmed Sadiq, who won the Masters Class competition in the World Bodybuilding Championships in Spain last month, almost missed competing in the event.

Arriving barely hours before the start of the championship after a long flight, Sadiq described on Sunday how he made it to the venue and how lucky he was when he eventually got there.

“No official of the championship organising committee was there to receive me at the airport and I had to pay $200 to get to the venue which was almost two hours away,” he told reporters at a press conference.

“Out of breath and all my luggage still with me, I arrived to find that only two events remained to be contested, to my good luck mine was one of them.”

Things had begun to go wrong for Sadiq, a former Mr World, from the very start. Three other members of his team — Saeed Mughal, Sohail Anwar and coach Sikander Baloch — were unable to get visas, therefore he had to make the long journey alone.

Sadiq then had a problem catching a flight from Islamabad to Karachi but once he managed to get one, he found that his seat for onward journey to Madrid had been cancelled because he did not have it reconfirmed. He then had to make quick alternate arrangements to fly out.

“I am glad though that despite all these hiccups, my performance was appreciated by the spectators and on their insistence I had to give another display.”

Sadiq’s winning the crown was appreciated by the chairman of the Pakistan Amateur Bodybuilders’ Guild (PABBG) Nauman Shah and president Jahanzeb Aziz, both of whom were also present at the news conference.

Nauman said that there was a need for having more gyms in the country so that the youth could make use of the facilities instead of indulging in other useless activities.

Meanwhile, Ahmed plans to compete in the Mr Olympia competition in November and Mr Universe the following month.