The 27th Men’s and 10th Women’s National Judo Championship jointly organized by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Judo Association and Directorate General sports Khyber Pakhtunkhwa here at Rafique Sports Arena Hall, Peshawar Sports Com-plex on Saturday.
Vice President of Pakistan Judo Federation and owner Toyota Frontier Motors Shafiq Afridi and Hammad Babar, owner of ICMS, formally inaugu-rated the competitions. The competitions will con-tinue till January 3 in which 14 teams from all over Pakistan are participating.
Among them are Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Is-lamabad, FATA, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Islamabad, Pakistan Army, WAPDA, Railways, Police, Navy, HEC and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are included.
The Pakistan Army team is defending the title. Olympian Shah Hussain is an Asian Bronze Medal-ist, Commonwealth, Silver Medalist of South Asian, Triple Gold Medalist and National Champion. He is also defending his title. Shah Hussain Shah is the son of our National Hero Hussain Shah who won a Bronze Medal in the Olympics in Boxing. Shah Hussain Shah won the 2016 Olympics and also participated in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and showed excellent performance and now his eyes are focused on the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
In the National Championship, 10 different weight categories are competing in men’s competi-tions and eight weight categories in women’s com-petitions.
Men are taking part in 50 kg, 55 kg, 60 kg, 66 kg, 73 kg. -81kg ‘-90kg’ -100kg ‘100kg and above while women’s -40kg, -44kg -48kg, -52kg, -57kg.
According to Masood Ahmed, Vice President, Pakistan Judo Federation, best arrangements have been made for the players and officials in the Na-tional Championship across the country. The par-ticipation of the best players of the team will help in the promotion and development of Judo in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Sardar Fazilat in -60kg class in HEC’s Akash, ‘KP’s Waheed, Hussain Muzammil, Gilgit-Baltistan’s Taseeruddin, in -66kg class PSP’s Shoaib, Mohammad Hussain, Salman Khan, Mu-hammad Omar of Punjab, Junaid Karim of Gilgit Baltistan, Naseeb Khan of Balochistan, Talha of HEC in 55kg competitions, Mehran of Punjab, Ijaz of KP, Akbar Ali of Pakistan Army and Pakistan Wapda Sadiq, Noor Khan of Balochistan in 50kg competitions, Salman Khan of KP, Sabir Hussain of Army, Abu Sufyan of HEC, Halima of Balochistan in 44kg, Asifa Noor of KP-A, In 40kg class, Sakina of Balochistan, Nayab of HEC, Sana Anwar of Pun-jab, Sidra Yousaf of Army and Kausar Iqbal of Pakistan Wapda recorded victories in their respec-tive rivals and advance to next round.—APP
