Arshad, Pak contingent gear up for Paris Games

The contingent don the national flag colours at opening ceremony

PARIS:

Pakistan’s brilliant javelin thrower Arshad Nadeem said on Friday that he along with the seven-member Pakistan contingent were geared up for the Paris Olympics and looking forward to the grand Olympics Opening Ceremony, scheduled later in the day.

“Alhamdulillah, our preparations are going very well,” Arshad told this correspondent in Paris. “My training has been going very well too. I am feeling very good about everything. Since I’ve come here, we have been training properly and so far we’ve done two-hour sessions.”

Meanwhile, the other athletes including sprinter Faiqa Riaz, swimmers Muhammad Ahmed Durrani and Jehanar Nabi, shooters Kishmala Talat, Ghulam Muhammad Bashir and Gulfam Joseph all looked fit and ready for the ceremony.

The shooters will compete in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, 10m Air Pistol, 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team and 10m Air Pistol, 25m Pistol, 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team.

Faiqa will participate in the 100 metre athletics event.

Pakistan contingent’s Chef de Mission Muhammad Shafiq said the athletes will be donning white kameez shalwar with green waistcoats and black shoes at the Olympics opening.

“We will be representing Pakistan in the best possible way we can,” said Shafiq who was among the first ones to arrive in Paris on July 18. He also attended the initial meetings to set up the contingent once everyone else began to arrive.

The shooters are staying in a different city, and they took some time to adjust.

Paris had also been attacked just hours before the Olympic Open Ceremony, a train track was destroyed, and it had also been raining at night and the morning of July 26.

But Shafiq said that everyone is feeling safe. “There is a sense of safety and we are all doing well. We initially had a bit of adjustment to do, but so far all is going great.

He requested the Pakistani supporters to pray that the team’s performances go well.

Similarly, the Pakistan Swimming Federation (PSF) official Lt Col (R) Ahmed Ali Khan, who is also accompanying the athletes as a part of the contingent said that the experience has been great in terms of the facilities.

“It has been an amazing experience in Paris so far, what great facilities we have here,” said Khan. “Our actual heats are in the morning sessions. So we are undergoing training in morning sessions and we reach the venue of our competitions where we’ve got two swimming pools of international standard.

“We go there after breakfast around 8:00 am. The training pool and competition pools have rules that we follow.

“Both swimmers are training and resting as well, they will give their best performance by improving on their personal best. We’ll see how they perform on the day of the event.”

Both swimmers have qualified on the universality quota, they are here on quota, and they are here because they are the best swimmers in the country. Let’s hope they perform very well.”

Both swimmers are participating in the 200 m freestyle on 28 July.

About Jehanara, who will also be a flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony, Khan said that she is a very hardworking athlete.

The 18-year-old has been on the International Olympic Committee’s scholarship for the last two years. The scholarship came her way through the Pakistan Olympic Association by the PSF. She has been the leading female swimmer in the country for the last four years.

“She got herself trained at a designated training center by the World Aquatics.