LAHORE: The recent cancellation of the World Beach Games has forced Pakistan’s premier wrestler Mohammad Inam to shift his focus from beach training to mat training and has now targeted the Olympics Qualifiers.
The first round of the Olympic Qualifiers will be held in Serbia in September in the shape of the World Wrestling Championship.
“Now the focus has become simple and that will be on the Olympics Qualifiers,” Inam told ‘The News’ here in a detailed chat on Saturday.
“Previously my focus was also on the World Beach Games but unfortunately these Games have been cancelled. And the cancellation came when there were trials for the Asian Games. Now my focus is on the World Championship which is also the first qualifying round for the Olympics.
“Hardly two months are left. I have begun preparation and am managing weight. Top effort will be made to click in the World Championship."
The World Championship will be held in Serbia from September 16 to 24. Before that, Inam, Mohammad Bilal and Inayatullah will also attend a ten-day camp from September 5-15 in Serbia being held under the auspices of the United World Wrestling (UWW).
Asked how much the camp in Serbia will be helpful ahead of the World Championship Inam said it would benefit him.
“Hopefully it will help. But last year we had got a ten-day camp before the Asian Championship and that was not so helpful. You know every nation has its own plan. We went there with a mindset that our training will be very good and we will be able to get an opportunity of interaction with international grapplers. When we talked to them that we are interested in fights they told us that they are now in recovery phase and will not train hard and we could not fight there during those ten days and it did not benefit us,” Inam recalled.
“I have recently interacted with the federation and it said that so many people have been invited for training ahead of the World Championship and where when some will be in recovery phase so some will definitely want fights and something positive will be achieved. But attending such camps is very important as one can learn,” he added.
Asked how much tough will be the World Championship for him Inam said that top-ranked wrestlers will get benefit.
“The top eight wrestlers are placed in different groups and they will get light opponents. We will have to begin in top 60 and after winning the first fight you will qualify for the top 32, then top 16 and then eight and you have to compete with the world’s leading wrestlers. It creates issues. If you win the first two fights you will have to face the world’s top wrestler,” he pointed out.
“You improve your rankings when you feature in ranking series, World Championships and other major events consistently. The nations, who play seven to eight events, achieve good rankings. They normally start from top 18 and they get an edge. And we are to begin with top 60.
“Four ranking series and continental championship were held this year and we did not feature in any. Last time when I featured in the Asian event I was in top 50 after playing just one event. If you play three to four events in a year then making a place in top 20 is not difficult.
“I told the federation a few days ago if we make a plan and manage foreign training for the whole August, then play the World Championship and then again we go abroad to train for three months it would be of great help.
“But again the issue emerges that how foreign training can be managed and who will sponsor this. I have proposed if four wrestlers who are going to the Asian Games and one me are given three months foreign training then chances of qualifying for the Olympics can be created."
There is a three-pronged qualification system for wrestling for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Top five in each weight will qualify for the Olympics through the World Championship in Serbia this September.
The leading two grapplers in each weight will make it to the Paris Games through the Asian Qualifying tournament to be held in Bishkek from April 12-14, 2024. And top three in each weight will earn Olympics seats in the World Qualifying tournament to be held in Istanbul from May 9-12.
Alam Zeb Safi Alam Zeb Safi is a senior reporter for The News