Pakistan Women Judokas to Help India Prepare for Commonwealth Games
Pakistan's 10-woman judo squad will train the Indian athletes in Patialia next month for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow starting July 23.
The Pakistan women Judokas may have missed the Commonwealth Games 2014 bus, but they are ready to help their Indian counterparts prepare for the event in Glasgow starting July 23. The move comes up after Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's two-day visit to India, where he had a meeting with his counterpart Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee.
Pakistan's 10-woman judo squad, including South Asian Judo Championship gold medalist Humera Ashique, will travel to Patiala in June to train the Indian athletes.
Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) secretary Masood Ahmed said that since Pakistan is not fielding a team at CWG due to the conflict between the Pakistan Olympics Association and the government, the athletes will now help the neighbours prepare for the Glasgow event.
"Since we can't go, we'll help them as we are South Asian nations anyway, it's a great deal for both parties," Ahmed told The Express Tribune.
Ahmed said that the Indian official Mukesh Kumar invited Pakistani athletes to Patiala for the training sessions for 20 days.
"It's going to happen next month, we've been invited to Patiala where the Indian squad is preparing," said Ahmed.
According to Ahmed, the female squad received rave reviews at the South Asian Championship in Nepal in April and will certainly help the Indian Judokas.
"Kumar invited our female athletes because they are impressive, they've given a tough competition to the Indian, Nepalese and Sri Lankan judokas in the championship," he said.