ISLAMABAD: The National Junior Taekwondo Championship will start from Thursday (tomorrow) here at Hamidi Hall of the Pakistan Sports Complex.

Speaking to Dawn Pakistan Taekwondo Federation (PTF) president Col Waseem Ahmad said that the junior championship is being held to pick talent for the upcoming Asian Junior Championship which will be held in Chinese Taipei in March.

He said that 12 teams will feature in the three-day national championship with Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, AJK, Gilgilt-Baltistan, Army, Navy, HEC and Police participating in the event.

Meanwhile, training camp is in progress at the Hamidi Hall for Asian Games which will start from Sept 19 in Incheon, South Korea.

A five-member team including two women will participate in the event. However, players namely Arslan Asad, Ghazanfar Ali, Atif Arsad, Najia Khan and Asia Batool in addition to PTF president did not seem upbeat about winning gold in the upcoming Asian Games citing lack of international exposure

“No doubt, we are doing hard work and will try our best to clinch gold but the fact of the matter is that we may face tough competitors due to our lack of exposure at international level,” Arsalan told Dawn.

The same views were expressed by Asia when she commented: “It will be early to say anything about the mega event but one thing is clear that we have played far less number of international matches than our competitors,” adding that Koreans and Iranians could give Pakistan tough time.

Scotland-based Atif is receiving training from his personal coach in Scotland. Atif has been representing Pakistan since 2008 and will join the team for Asian Games in Incheon.

Pakistan players showed brilliant performance in the 10th South Asian Games held in Sri Lanka, winning three gold and six bronze medals which is so far Pakistan’s best performance.

Pakistan team are beset by numerous problems but the main issue players as well as the PTF president are concerned about is less number of international matches. “Our players could not participate in any international event during last one year,” remarked the PTF chief who added in the same breath that he saw less chances of winning gold at the Games.

However, he said Atif had the potential to make upset.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2014