LAHORE, Sept 29: The first batch of the Pakistan contingent, comprising 54 athletes and officials, left for New Delhi on Wednesday to participate in the XIX Commonwealth Games, starting from Oct 3.
Pakistan will compete in eight disciplines.
Hockey, squash, tennis, weightlifting, wrestling and boxing teams left on Wednesday while three athletes and an eight-member shooting team will leave for New Delhi on Oct 2.
Before departure, members of the hockey squad met PHF president Qasim Zia and secretary Asif Bajwa at the National Hockey Stadium.
Addressing the squad, Qasim Zia said the PHF was using all its resources to provide the best facilities to the players and were expecting good results from them.
He said the statement of foreign coach Michel Van Den that Pakistan would not get the gold was based on reality, still we had high expectations from the squad.
Ten teams are taking part in the hockey event, starting from Oct 5.
Pool 'A' comprises Australia, Pakistan, Malaysia, India and Scotland, while pool 'B' comprises England, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Trinidad & Tobago.
Pakistan will play their first match against Scotland on Oct 5, second against Malaysia on Oct 6, third against Australia on Oct 9 and fourth against India on Oct 10.
Classification matches and semi-finals will be played on Oct 12, while final and bronze medal matches will be played on Oct 14.
“We are participating in only those events in which we think we have some chance to win medal,” Pakistan Olympic Association chief Arif Hasan said.
“In Asia the standard of wrestling is very good. I think our wrestlers have a good chance,” he said.
Gen Hasan said doping was not behind Pakistans non-participation in the track and field events.
Doping “is not the reason at all,” Hasan said. “We realise that our athletes could not match the timings of international standards in track and field events.”
Pakistan's Cuban boxing coach Francisco Hernandez Roldan had seen his boxers doing well at this year's South Asian Federation Games, but said more international exposure could have given his team better preparation.
“It is unfortunate that there aren't many teams coming to Pakistan due to security problems,” Roldan said. “Despite only one international competition (SAF Games) I hope that we will do in the six categories we are participating.”
For Haroon, the Commonwealth Games will be his first major event under the Pakistan flag as he has represented England in few junior competitions.
He attended the trials at Karachi at the invitation of authorities, and joined the training camp at Islamabad in late July.
“I've learnt Asian and European styles of boxing and it will be an honour for me to represent Pakistan,” he said.
Mohammad Wasim, 21, will fight in the 49kg category. He won a gold medal at the Combat Games in China last month.
Pakistan's best bet perhaps is on its weightlifters Malik, Sajjad Amin Malik and Khurram Shahzad.
However, the six-member team was hamstrung slightly in its preparations when it struggled to get proper shoes for the New Delhi competition and had no other choice but to get their old pair of shoes repaired at a local market for the training camp at Islamabad.
“Our main problem is these old shoes due to which our athletes are feeling pain in their ankles,” said coach Rashid Mahmood.
Malik dug out the shoes he wore to win gold in Melbourne four years ago in his recent training.
“It's a matter of around $1,500 to get six pairs of proper weightlifting shoes, but we don't know whether we would get it before the team leaves for New Delhi,” Rashid said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan's top pistol shooter Irshad Ali is confident of striking a medal at the event.
“I had trained and worked very hard to secure a gold which eluded me in Melbourne Games four years ago,” the last games' silver medallist in Standard Pistol said on Wednesday.
Manager-cum-coach Razi Ahmed Khan believed that if Pakistan performed to their potential, they were capable of grabbing a medal in the skeet event.—Agencies