Asian Jiu-Jitsu Championship: Coach suspects foul-play in Pakistan's defeat

Defending champions lose to Iran following controversial refereeing

KARACHI: Pakistani pair of Ammar and Abu Hurraira secured second position in the duo system competition of the 2016 Asian Jiu-Jitsu Championship after losing the deciding gold medal match to Iran in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on Sunday.

With that defeat, the defending champions surrendered their title, although coach Tariq Ali suspected some foul-play.

“Ammar and Hurraira are our best players in the duo system; they’ve been the Asian champions thrice before,” Ali told The Express Tribune. “They had a good chance at defending their title, but we believe that there were some problems with the refereeing as we led in the first round but lost in the second. We need to take this up with the international jiu-jitsu body.”



Thailand took third place in the competition, while Turkmenistan stood fourth.

Ali also pointed out that the players had trained eight to nine hours daily in Karachi for a month and a half to hone their skills for the championship.





“We were hoping to win the gold medal but unfortunately it wasn't to be," said Ali. "We also wanted to send more players for this event, but there weren’t enough funds. Nonetheless, we feel that our hard work has paid off as bagging Asian Championship medal is no mean feat."

Ali also commended Dilawar Khan Sannan, who went as far as the quarter-finals despite it being his debut event.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2016.

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