KARACHI: An eight-member taekwondo squad of Pakistan is scheduled to leave for Korea on April 5 from Lahore to undergo training ahead of the First Asian Martial Arts Games to be held at Bangkok from April 25 to May 3, a top official of the Pakistan Taekwondo Federation (PTF) told 'The News' on Friday.
"After great efforts and with the kind support of the Pakistan Sports Trust (PST), finally we have become capable to send four boys and four girls to Korea on April 5 for a fortnight training programme," the secretary of the PTF Muhammad Wasim Ahmad said.
He said boarding and lodging arrangements for the team are being made and the Pakistan team coach Bae Yoham, who also belongs to Korea, has already been sent to Korea ahead of the players so that he could make everything final and then receive the players at the Airport.
He said that the Asian Taekwondo Union (ATU) will also help the Pakistan taekwondo authorities in making training arrangements for the Pakistani players.
Adding that the players would move to Thailand from Korea on April 24 to feature in the Asian Martial Arts Games. Pakistan taekwondo players have been receiving training at the Army Sports Gymnasium in Rawalpindi since January 25. The PTF secretary said that the best available players have been picked for the Bangkok Games purely on merit.
He said that Ghazanfar Ali (Army, fin-weight), Arif Mehmood (Army, welter-weight), Fahim Fawad Butt (WAPDA, fly-weight), Javed Karim (Army, light-weight), Umme Kulsoom (Railways, light-weight), Maham Aftab (Punjab, fin-weight), Asia Batool (Army, welter-weight) and Nadia Khan (Army, middle weight) are the players who have been finalized for the forthcoming mega event in Bangkok and are being sent to Korea for training.
Wasim said that all these players are the best seeds of the country and have got sufficient international exposure.
Ghazanfar Ali is a silver medallist of the International Masters NRW competition held in Germany in October last year. Arif Mehmood had also reached the quarter-finals in the Asian Qualifiers for Beijing Olympics held in Vietnam last year and the same is the case with the 15-year old Maham Aftab and Asia Batool who had grabbed gold and bronze medal respectively in the Al-Hassan International Taekwondo Championship in Jordon last August.
"Asian Martial Arts Games is like the mini Olympics. It is a tough event in which 32 countries will show their worth in taekwondo. It would be premature to say anything about the chances of any medal for Pakistan. The draw also has its role and letÃs see what happens but I hope that the players will deliver their hundred per cent in Bangkok," Wasim said.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/
Pakistan taekwondo to Korea
