ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will not be featuring in the Commonwealth Judo Championship starting in the Indian city of Jaipur from Sunday due to visa issues, an official of the Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) revealed on Friday.

The championship running from Nov 4 to 11, will be contested in masters, seniors, juniors and cadet categories. The PJF had announced last month that its judokas would participate in all the categories at the event.

“Our 19 judokas were set to leave for the championship via Wagah Border. It would have been our first ever full-fledged participation in an international event. But I am very sad that we are going to miss this event due to visa delay,” PJF vice-president Masood Ahmed told APP.

The delay in getting the visas was on the part of Indian Home Ministry, he added.

“We’ve processed our case to the organisers of the event, the Indian Judo Federation, well in time. They were very cooperative and tried their best to get clearance for our athletes. But I believe the delay is on the part of Indian Home Ministry as it took too long to decide our case. Although, it has cleared us now, we will not be able to reach in time as Saturday and Sunday are off days and we can only apply for visas on Monday,” the official maintained.

On the sidelines of the championship, Masood said, elections for the Commonwealth Judo Association would also take place on Nov 5, adding the PJF was set to vie for an executive committee seat. “Now we’ll miss these elections too,” he added.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2018