PJF honours star judoka Shah Hussain Shah

The athlete had won a silver medal at last year’s Commonwealth Games.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) honoured athlete Shah Hussain Shah in a ceremony at the Mehran Hotel on Saturday after the judoka was awarded  Rs2 million by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB)  for his silver medal at the 20th Commonwealth Games Glasgow 2014.

PJF secretary Masood Ahmed said that the ceremony was held to encourage Shah for future events, adding that the judoka was Pakistan’s main hope for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

“We organised this reception for a number of reasons,” Ahmed told The Express Tribune. “The federation is not only pleased with the PSB’s recognition of Shah, but is also delighted with the Sindh Judo Association’s announcement of presenting him with an honorary gold medal.

“Shah is our main hope for the 2016 Olympics; even the [Iranian] coach Sajjad Kazemi believes that he can go on to represent Pakistan at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.”

Shah, who is the son of Pakistan’s sole Olympic medallist boxer Shah Hussain received further bonus in the shape of Rs200,000 given to his mother for coaching him.

The 21-year-old had received the Rs2 million from the PSB along with silver-medallists Muhammad Waseem (boxing) and Qamar Abbas (wrestling), while bronze-medallist Azhar Hussain collected Rs1 million on February 12 in Islamabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2015.

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