LAHORE: Former secretary Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) Naveed Mahmood has slammed the PJF over the dismal performance of Shah Hussain Shah at the Tokyo Olympics where he was disqualified after committing three fouls in the first round of his bout against Egyptian Ramadan Dervaish.

“The sordid drama of the Pakistan Judo Federation of securing a gold medal in the judo event at the Tokyo Olympics has finally come to an end this morning when Shah Hussain lost in the very first round by getting disqualified in match against his Egyptian opponent. He is now effectively out of the tournament,” lamented Naveed, a former international judoka, in a press statement here on Friday.

“It is surprising that such an experienced player, who has been in the international circuit for more than 10 years, displayed a complete lack of the knowledge of judo’s rules and regulations and got disqualified over the fouls committed. But then he is not to be blamed for this poor display. It is the Pakistan

Judo Federation which should take all the blame.

“For more than 12 years, a bunch of individuals who have absolutely no knowledge about judo have been running the federation. Today, as things stand, none of the principle office-bearers of this federation is a judo player. Then how can they expect to deliver results?,” asked Naveed.

“During all this time, they have received crores of rupees from the government, but except at the South Asia level (where Pakistani judo players were already performing), they have delivered nothing.”

“In fact they have used Shah Hussain as bait to present before the government, making false promises and raising hopes about him to get a gold medal in the Olympics and gathered millions of rupees,” alleged Naveed .

The PJF did the same thing in the last Rio Olympics and even there, Shah Hussain lost in the very first round and was out of the Games.

“The government and PSB should thoroughly look into this shameful affair and should probe about where those huge amount of funds were really spent,” deman­ded Naveed.

Medals table

After Friday’s events

(Tabulated under gold, silver, bronze, total):

China 19 10 11 40

Japan 17 4 7 28

United States 14 16 11 41

Russian OC 10 14 10 34

Australia 9 2 11 22

Great Britain 6 9 9 24

South Korea 5 4 6 15

Netherlands 3 7 5 15

France 3 5 5 13

Germany 3 4 9 16

Canada 3 3 5 11

New Zealand 3 3 2 8

Czech Republic 3 2 1 6

Croatia 3 1 2 6

Italy 2 7 11 20

Hungary 2 1 2 5

Slovenia 2 1 1 4

Kosovo 2 0 0 2

Brazil 1 3 3 7

Switzerland 1 3 3 7

Georgia 1 3 0 4

Romania 1 3 0 4

Taiwan 1 2 3 6

Hong Kong 1 2 0 3

South Africa 1 2 0 3

Austria 1 1 2 4

Serbia 1 1 2 4

Norway 1 1 0 2

Slovakia 1 1 0 2

Tunisia 1 1 0 2

Estonia 1 0 1 2

Ireland 1 0 1 2

Uzbekistan 1 0 1 2

Bermuda 1 0 0 1

Ecuador 1 0 0 1

Ethiopia 1 0 0 1

Fiji 1 0 0 1

Greece 1 0 0 1

Iran 1 0 0 1

Latvia 1 0 0 1

Philippines 1 0 0 1

Thailand 1 0 0 1

Colombia 0 2 1 3

Spain 0 2 1 3

Indonesia 0 1 2 3

Mongolia 0 1 2 3

Belgium 0 1 1 2

Cuba 0 1 1 2

Denmark 0 1 1 2

Uganda 0 1 1 2

Bulgaria 0 1 0 1

India 0 1 0 1

Jordan 0 1 0 1

North Macedonia 0 1 0 1

Poland 0 1 0 1

Turkmenistan 0 1 0 1

Venezuela 0 1 0 1

Ukraine 0 0 4 4

Kazakhstan 0 0 3 3

Egypt 0 0 2 2

Mexico 0 0 2 2

Turkey 0 0 2 2

Argentina 0 0 1 1

Azerbaijan 0 0 1 1

Finland 0 0 1 1

Israel 0 0 1 1

Ivory Coast 0 0 1 1

Kuwait 0 0 1 1

Portugal 0 0 1 1

San Marino 0 0 1 1

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2021