ATHENS, Aug 19: Meharullah and Asghar Ali Shah face uphill task when they face Cubana in their respective second round bouts of the Athens Olympics Boxing competition on Friday.
Asian gold medallists, Meharullah, will clash Guillermo Ortiz in a 57 kgs bout and Asghar faces on Mario Cesar in 60 kgs. Their bouts are real tough as they will be taking on strong opponents who are much superior in ranking and are potential medallists and we hope our boxers will give them tough time, said Syed Haroon Masood, manager of the five-member Pakistan boxing team on Thursday.
Pakistan's two boxers Faisal Karim (64kgs) and Sohail Ahmad (57 kgs) were beaten in the opening round bouts and Mehar and Asghar are the only two survivors. Ahmad Ali the fifth member of the team, got a first round bye and he is set to clash with Kazkhstan's Golovkin Gennadiy in 75 kgs bout on Saturday.
Haroon said Pakistani boxers prior to their participation in Olympic underwent five-week strenuous training in Cuba and it was expected that they will give their best.
Mehar had earlier beaten his Kyrgyzstans boxer Aibek Abdymomunoy 36-22 and Aghar defeated Ukranian Volodymyr Kravets 21-17. Meanwhile, five weightlifters have tested positive for banned drugs and have missed their chance at Olympic glory, officials said on Thursday.
IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said five weightlifters had tested positive for banned substances since teams of drug-busters started work on July 30 in the latest scandal to rock the tarnished sport.
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) named the five as male lifters Viktor Chislean of Moldova, Zoltan Kecskes of Hungary and women Sule Sahbaz of Turkey, Pratima Kumari Na of India and Morocco's Wafa Ammouri.
Four of the weightlifters failed to show for their events, held last Sunday and on Wednesday, while 2003 World Championship bronze medallist Sahbaz will miss the 75kg division on Friday.
The IWF is to hold a press conference at 6.30pm (1530 GMT). A sixth lifter, Myanmar's Nan Aye Khine, had already been expelled from the games after testing positive for an anabolic steroid.
But they admit that the rewards for success are so great that athletes continue to pump up their already muscle-bound bodies to lift even heavier weights. Weightlifting's first Olympic drug cheats were unmasked at the 1976 Montreal Games, with two medallists being kicked out, and despite a strict anti-drug regime three Bulgarian medal winners tested positive at the Sydney Games. -Agencies
