Pakistani judokas may train in Azerbaijan

Pakistan Judo Federation’s (PJF) secretary Masood Ahmed on Thursday said that Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Pakistan Dashgin Shikarov has promised to facilitate a training camp for their judokas in his country.

“Dashgin had come to Peshawar to attend the closing ceremony of the Inter-District Judo Championship. He has offered help in getting a training opportunity for Pakistani judokas in Azerbaijan,” Masood told ‘The News’. “It’s a good offer for us and we would like to benefit from it.”

He said that the PJF would like to send its junior and senior judokas in March for training in Azerbaijan, which had a good standing in Asia in the sport. “As we will feature in the South Asian Judo Championship in April in Nepal, training in Azerbaijan will help our players prepare for the event,” Masood added.

He disclosed that he had also requested Dashgin for a female coach and the ambassador had agreed. “I requested him to give us a female coach and he replied in affirmative and said that he would talk to his country’s judo federation and would take up the matter at the government level,” said the official.

Masood also said he would send a proposal to Azerbaijan’s judo authorities for bilateral series on each other’s soil.

About male coach Masood said that the matter of the Iranian coach was in process. “We have already filed our case with the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for Iranian coach Sajjad Kazmi. The Board has agreed but has told us that we should wait till the end of the verification process of the federations,” said Masood.

Kazmi previously served Pakistan as a coach from September 2012 to June 2013.

He was getting $1,500 salary but Masood said that he had filed the case for an increase in his salary. Hopefully the Iranian would be given a much better contract this time, he said. Under his coaching, Pakistan won bronze medal in the Asian Judo Championship in Bangkok.

ANN.Az