Injured Shah Hussain out of Tokyo Grand Slam

KARACHI: Pakistan's two-time Olympian judoka Shah Hussain has been ruled out of the Tokyo Grand Slam due to injury.

“Shah got injured the other day while training in Tokyo and has been ruled out of the Grand Slam in Tokyo,” a senior official of the Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) told 'The News' on Saturday.

“The organisers of the event have been informed about his injury,” the official said. The Grand Slam is scheduled to be held in Tokyo from December 3-4.

It was learnt that Tokyo-based Shah injured his knee again which had also forced him to stay away from a few events in the previous months.

The Grand Slam is a qualifying round for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Shah recently did a fine job in Australia in Oceania Open in his new weight of -90kg where he lost his bronze medal fight. The feat also helped him gain 135 pints which lifted his world ranking from 207 to 104.

He is currently ranked 100. It seems that he is now on the way to earn another Olympic seat for the third time in a row.

The PJF official also hoped that he would be able to place himself in a perfect position if he plays a few more events.

“If he gets two or three more events he can get a lot more points. We still have a few events in Europe and Asia besides the World Championship and Asian Championship and I hope Shah will show his skills,” the official said.

Meanwhile the official said that PJF had submitted its case with the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for fielding Shah Hussain, Qaisar Afridi and Hamid Khan in the Tokyo Grand Slam but due to lack of financial assistance the federation eventually decided that it will not send any fighter from Pakistan to Tokyo for Grand Slam.

The official said that the PJF is already in debt and it cannot afford to send its fighters to Tokyo.

The PJF, it has been learnt, has financially backed its fighters in the last four events in Mongolia, Abu Dhabi, Australia and Baku without the state help.