Shah Hussain Shah becomes first South Asian judoka to earn 39th spot in Olympic Rankings (2019)
Japan based Pakistani Judoka Shah Hussain has jumped up five more spots in the Olympic Rankings 2019 to reach 39th place also becoming the first ever South Asian Judoka to do so.
A press release issued by Pakistan Judo Federation President, Col (R) Junaid Alam states that the prominent Pakistani Judoka, Shah Hussain Shah has become the first ever South Asian judo athlete to have earned 39th spot in the Olympic Rankings 2019 by climbing up five more position than his previous spot in the rankings.
Shah has been featuring in several international events to improve his Olympic Ranking as much as possible because he has his eyes set on the forthcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He recently featured in another event where he managed to secure another 160 points accumulating 904 points in total to stand far ahead of his Asian competitors.
Mr Junaid Alam with another success of Shah said,
“We are not sending any other judoka anywhere besides Shah. Judo qualifying for Olympics is unlike other sports as there are only 3 to 4 Olympic qualifiers, contested by an athlete or a team. A federation has to field a judoka in maximum number of International Judo Federation (IJF) calendar events of last 2 years qualifying period with each having different weightage. If you miss any event the others get full benefit and gets a chance to improve their ranking. In the last four months, Shah was sent to participate in 7 different championships round the globe.”
He said the PJF has planned to send Shah on a six-week tour of Europe from February to March where he would not only attend the IJF training camp but will also participate in all Grand Prix and Grand Slam tournaments to further enhance his international rankings.
