Shah Hussain Shah to participate in Dusseldorf Grand Slam
Pakistan’s judoka Shah Hussain Shah will feature in Dusseldorf Grand Slam as part of his ongoing campaign to directly qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by bettering his ranking.
Pakistan’s premier judoka, Shah Hussain Shah, will feature in Dusseldorf Grand Slam in a bid to directly qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by improving his ranking.
The three-day event will commence on Feb 21 where 790 competitors including 465 men and 325 women from 121 countries are vying in different weight divisions.
Japan based Shah is currently training in Paris. Masood Ahmed, senior vice-president of the Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) confirmed that after spending some more days, Shah will proceed to Germany.
Shah, who had already made it to the Olympics under continental quota, faced a second-round exit in Paris Grand Slam after losing to Sviryd Mikita of Belarus in the -100kg bout, last week.
The 26-year-old, who had also represented Pakistan at the 2016 Rio Olympics under continental quota, had once again qualified for the quadrennial extravaganza under the same system.
Masood said that it was necessary for Shah to maintain his current position till the conclusion of qualification rounds.
“At the moment, Shah is top seed Asian judoka in his weight division. In Olympic rankings he is at 41. We are providing him more and more opportunities to enable him to further improve his ranking. He can also directly qualify for the event but
for that he should be among top 25,” he added.
Besides Shah, five other Pakistanis have earned spots in the Tokyo Olympics. They include Arshad Nadeem (javelin throw), Usman Khan (equestrian), Mohammad Khalil Akhtar, Ghulam Mustafa Bashir and Ghulfam Joseph (shooting).
