LAHORE, Aug 1: Twenty officials have been appointed in different capacity to take care of only 26 athletes in the Athens Olympics Games to be held from Aug 13 to 29.
A 46-member contingent leaves for Athens on Tuesday with not much hope of winning any gold medals in any of the five disciplines in which Pakistan is competing.
The contingent will represent the country in the disciplines of athletics, boxing, hockey, shooting and swimming. Pakistan, had to qualify in hockey and boxing while in shooting, swimming and athletics, it got wild card entries.
Interestingly, only one shooter Khurram Inam will represent the country with no hope of any medal. But two men Razi Ahmad and Pervez Abbasi are accompanying him as coach and manager, respectively.
POA knows quite well why the special treatment was given to a shooter while on the other side only one official Khalid Mahmood will take care of two athletes - Sajid Muhammad and Sumaira Zahoor in athletics.
The POA also includes six-officials in the contingent. The hockey and boxing teams will reach Athens directly from Spain and Cuba, respectively where they are currently on a preparation tour.
CONTINGENT:
ATHLETICS: Sajid Muhammad (men) and Sumaira Zahoor (women). Manager: Khalid Mahmood.
BOXING: Meharullah, Sohail Ahmad, Asghar Ali Shah, Faisal Karim, Ahmad Ali Khan. Manager: Syed Haroon Masood. Head coach: Reinaldo Alvarez Ulacia. Assistant coach: Zaigham Maseel.
HOCKEY: Ahmad Alam, Ali Raza, Sohail Abbas, Zeeshan Ashraf, Ghazanfar Ali, Dilawar Hussain, Waseem Ahmad, Adnan Maqsood, Rehan Butt, Mudassar Ali, Kashif Jawad, Muhammad Nadeem, Muhammad Shabbir, Shakeel Abbasi, Salman Akbar and Tariq Aziz. Manager: Yousuf Beg. Assistant manager: Roberto Tolintino. Head coach: Roelant Oltmans. Assistant coach: Tahir Zaman. Technical staff: FR Maria Jansen. Physiotherapist: Derek Jan Verder.
