‘We can win medals in Asian Games sailing’ says Pakistan

by Alam Zeb Safi, The News on 30 May 2010 Pakistan will announce its sailing team for the Asian Games by the end of June, a top official of the Pakistan Sailing Federation (PSAF) said on Saturday.

“The final team for the Asian Games would be announced soon after the completion of the trials which are currently in operation here at the PN Aquatic Club and which will last till the middle of next month,” the secretary of the PSAF Zahid Rauf told ‘The News’ here in an interview.

He said that the trials would be completed in two phases, saying, the first phase, which started on May 15 at the PN Aquatic Club, will be completed tomorrow (Monday), while the second phase would be held from June 6 to 16 at the PAF Yacht Club.

Zahid said that the sailors who will get top positions in their respective classes in the trials would be picked for the Asian Games penciled in for November 12 to 27 in Guangzhou, China.

The classes in which the trials are being conducted include Laser Standard, Laser Radial, 470, Mistral, RSX, Optimist Boys, Optimist Girls and Match Race.

The PSAF official said that after picking the final squad, which most probably would comprise of 13 athletes, the training camp would begin from July 1 for which both the PN Aquatic Club and the PAF Yacht Club have been kept as prospective venues.

Zahid said that the PSAF would need financial support from the government to prepare a fighting lot for the China affair.

“Our sailors need hard training and competitions both at home and abroad and we will be in great need of government support to prepare a good team for the most challenging event in China,” Zahid said.

“We have on our radar Turkey, India, Russia and Hong Kong to which we would like to send our sailors for training and competitions in different times till the Asian Games,” he said.

He said that the PSAF have also requested the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) that they would like to hire the services of a Turkish coach, Kamal, during the Asian Games.

To a query he said that Pakistan can win medals in 470, RSX, Laser Standard and Match Race. Qasim Abbas (RSX) has recently returned from training in Western Australia and is more likely to be once again supported by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) to visit there again ahead of the Asian Games. In 470, top athlete Xerxes Avari is also preparing hard and is more likely to fly out for Europe, most probably to England, on self finance basis to receive training for the Asian Games. Ironically, Asian Games are just five months away, but it is not yet confirmed that how many sailors Pakistan would field in the event.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=242112