ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Olympic hope Shah Hussain would feature in the Pan American Open scheduled to be held at Buenos Aires, Argentina next month.

“We’ve decided to field Shah Hussain in the event as participation in it will provide him a perfect chance to qualify for the Olympics,” Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) secretary Masood Ahmed told APP on Sunday.

Around 386 judokas are expected to compete in 14 events (seven each for both men and women) at the Summer Olympics from Aug 6 to 12.

According to the Olympic qualification rules, the judokas will keep on playing in the qualifiers till May 29, 2016.

After that the International Judo Federation (IJF) will prepare the final list of the judokas who will feature in the Olympics.

Masood said that the federation was pinning high hopes on Shah Hussain. “He has been outstanding for quite some time with winning medals for us as a result of which we’ve decided to focus on him,” he maintained.

Shah Hussain recently won gold medals in men’s 100kg final of the South Asian Games, defeating India’s Shubham Kumar in a minute and 29 seconds.

Notwithstanding his impressive show at the SAG, Masood believes that the SAG is just a minor show for Shah Hussain, saying: “He stunned everyone through his spectacular performance in India by proving that he was matchless in the region,” Masood said.

He said that the Federation was also considering Shah Hussain for the Asian Championships scheduled to be held in April in Uzbekistan.

“If he gets medal in the Asian Champio­nships, he’ll be able to claim a direct spot in Olympics,” added the PJF secretary.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2016