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ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: The Pakistan contingent will set out in quest of gold Tuesday as they board the plane for Bangkok on their way to the Asian Games city of Busan.
Pakistan will feature in the following disciplines at the Games that will explode into action on Sunday:
Boxing, weightlifting, squash, billiards and snooker, rowing, sailing, wrestling, shooting, hockey, kabaddi, tennis, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, karate, bodybuilding, volleyball, football, cycling, judo, athletics, gumnastics and wushu.
The kabaddi, bodybuliding, karate and taekowondo teams will leave for Busan on Friday.
The squad (sponsored by Pakistan Sports Board):
SQUASH: Mehboob Khan (coach), Mansoor Zaman, Shahid Zaman
TABLE TENNIS: Mrs Raheela Kashif (coach), Ghazala Roohi Swimming: Sadiqa Afzal (manager), Kiran Khan, Ayesha Tajwar
KABADDI: Muhammad Sarwar (coach), Muhammad Mansha, Tariq Hussain, Zubair Ahmed, Badshah Gul, Muhammad Akram, Mukhtar Ahmed, Muhammad Latif, Noor Akbar, Muhammad Akram Jnr. Muhammad Saleem
TENNIS: Rasheed Malik, Aisamul Haq, Aqeel Khan
SAILING: Khalid Bashir Cheema, Tahir Abbas, Shahryar Arshad, Riaz Muhammad, Naseem Javed, Abdul Hameed, Muhammad Yousaf, Muhammad Tanvir, Muhammad Huzaifa Farooqi, Miss Andrea Yasmin Rehman
ROWING: Lt. Col Hammad Khalid, Rizwanul Haq, Azmat Javed, Muhammad Afzal, Zeeshan Majeed, Muhammad Akram, Muhammad Adeel Sultan, Naseer Ahmed
SHOOTING: Javed Lodhi, Zahid Ali, Irshad Ali, Mustaqeem Shah, Ahmad Sultan, Daud Jan, Muhammad Ayaz Tahir, Nazish Khan, Urooj Fatima
KARATE: Kashif Zia, Farman Ahmad
BILLIARDS AND SNOOKER: Shah Nawaz, Wahid Fakhruddin Tawawala, Arifullah, Muhammad Hussain, Saleh Muhammad, Muhammad Yousaf, Khurrum Hussain Agha, Naveen Perwani, Imran Shehzad
BODYBUILDING: Muhammad Ismail Bhatty, Javed Akhtar, Khalid Ali
WRESTLING: Ch. Muhammad Asghar, Papoo Pehlwan
TAEKWONDO: Muhammad Hanif
BOXING: Muhammad Zubair Shahid (coach), Reinaldo Alvarez Ulacia (coach), Zaighum Maseel, Nauman Karim, Abid Ali, Mehrullah, Imran, Mazhar Hussain, Asghar Ali Shah, Kashif Mumtaz, Ahmed Ali Khan, Shaukat Ali, Mirza Muzaffar Iqbal
HOCKEY: Col (Retd) Zafar Ali Khan, Tahir Zaman (coach), Asif Bajwa (coach), Dr. Waqar Saleem Mirza, Muhammad Qasim, Ahmed Alam, Sohail Abbas, Tariq Imran, Zeeshan Ashraf, Muhammad Nadeem, Ghazanfar Ali, Muhammad Saqlain, Waseem Ahmad, Dilawar Hussain, Mudassar Ali Khan, Muhammad Sarwar, Kashif Jawaad, Rehan Butt, Muhammad Shabbir, Khalid Saleem.
FOOTBALL (Sponsored by Pakistan Football Federation): Juzef Herel, Muhammad Sadiq Sheikh, Hidyatullah, Jafar Khan, Asadullah Tarique, Muhammad Shahzad, Amir Shehzad, Ashfaq Ahmed, Haroon Yousuf, Tanvir Ahmed, Naseer Ahmed, Adeel Ahmed, Atiqur Rehman, Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Gohar Zaman, Muhammad Essa, Mehmood, Muhammad Asif Ayub, Nomi Martin, Arif Mehmood, Zaheer Abbas
VOLLEYBALL (sponsored by SAF Games secretariat): Allama Ghulam Hasan (manager), Fedir Lashchonov (coach), Ihsanullah, Muhammad Tufail, Bakht Risal, Sajid Nawaz, Kashif Manzoor, Zafar Iqbal, Irfan Nawaz, Muhammad Elahi, Muhammad Jamil, Ashfaq Hussain. Sponsored by Pakistan Olympic Assocation:
SHOOTING: Munir Hussain, Nadia Saeed, Sheikh Amin Karamat Masud, Khurrum Inam, Mahmood Sultan, Usman Sadiq
SWIMMING: Zafar Mahmood, Zulfiqar Ali, Muhammad Khan, Fatima Lakhani, Sana Wahid, Mahira Karim, Mehrunnisa Khan
WUSHU: Iftikhar Ahmed, Usman Ahmed
TABLE TENNIS: Shujaat Ali Baig, Farjad Saif, Shabnam Bilal
GYMNASTICS: Muhammad Akbar Shah (manager), Tanveer Ahmed
CYCLING: Sheikh Nisar Ahmed, Haroon Rashid
JUDO: Muhammad Jahangir, Muhammad Zeeshan Butt Karate: Munir Ahmad Dar, Babar Iqbal
WRESTLING: Muhammad Ali
ATHLETICS: Ahmad Saeed Anjum, Allah Ditta, Abdul Rashid, Sumaira Zahoor
ROWING: Allah Rakha, Muhammad Nazir, Aslam Hayat, Qazi Muhammad Amjad
SAILING: Xerxes B Avari, Kamil Aziz Khan, Noor Muhammad
Contingent officials (sponsored by PSB and SAF Games secretariat): Brig Arif Rasool (Deputy cehf de mission), Khalid Javed (secretary), Lt. Col. Muhammad Yahya (administration officer), Jawaid Akhtar (treasurer), Lt. Col Dr. Khalid Hussain (Doctor), Maj Yahya Ghaznavi (media coordinator).
AFP ADDS:
Pakistan is entering 175 athletes in at least 19 sports in the Asian Games, where it is hoping to revive its once stellar performance.
But the internal wrangles which have contributed to the slip in its international sporting prowess have reared again, with the country’s two main sports bodies in a standoff over how many sports to enter.
The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) wants to limit entries to 19 sports, including athletics, bodybuilding, boxing, billiards, field hockey, football, kabbadi, karate, rowing, sailing, shooting, squash, swimming, table tennis, tennis, tae kwondo, volleyball, weightlifing and wrestling.
PSB director Brigadier Saulat Abbas said only likely medal winners should be sent to the Asiad, which kicks of Sept 29, because of limited resources.
“Due to a shortage of funds we have decided to send only those who have a realistic chance of winning a medal,” Abbas said.
Apart from internal disputes, economic and political instability brought on by the 11-month US-led military campaign in Afghanistan and the military coup three years ago have seen Pakistan’s Asiad performance slip in recent years.
The strongest hopes for Pakistani medals at Busan lie in field hockey, boxing, squash, snooker, shooting, wrestling and weightlifting, Abbas said.
Pakistan won hockey golds on seven previous occasions, but the last time was in Beijing in 1990.
Pakistan placed 16th at the last Asiad in Bangkok in 1998, picking up two gold, four silver and nine bronze medals.
Former national hockey captain, Shahbaz Ahmed, was upbeat about medal chances in Busan.
“If Pakistan plays up to its potential, it can win a gold as it can beat reigning champions India and South Korea,” he said.
