ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Taekwondo Federation (PTWF) women wing president Saba Shahmim says lack of facilities and international exposure are the main reason behind athletes failure in the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games held in Baku.

Talking to The Nation, Saba said: “Our athletes have always won medals in international competitions, but due to the sudden news suspension of PSB DG Akhtar Ganjera and resignation of IPC minister Riaz Pirzada left the players high and dry, as they even didn’t know whether they might be able to participate in the Games or not.”

Saba said she not making lame excuses for not winning medals in taekwondo, but it was order of the day. “Our athletes, who have won gold medals in international events, failed to bag even bronze medals. We had taken top six females and eight males players but unfortunately they couldn’t produce good results.

“The organisers did a fantastic job as the arrangements were truly world class. One thing is quite certain that after witnessing the fights, I can easily claim that our athletes are not lesser than any given top athlete, but we lack international exposure, training camps and international training, which is must for winning international medals,” she said.

Saba said the annual grant, the PTWF receive from the PSB, was like peanuts. “We can’t even pay utility bills and run day-to-day affairs from that meager amount, so holding national championships, training camps and sending athletes abroad will be not more than day dreaming. If Col Waseem couldn’t work so hard, take extra pain and bring in sponsors, the federation could have long stopped functioning.

“Now the time is high when the government must pay heed to sure short medal hopefuls, rather than investing heavily on cricket or to some extent hockey. Other sports also deserve government’s attention, we have less than three months training camp at the PSB, which is not enough to think about competing against the best in the business,” she added.

Saba said: “We can’t invest heavily due to highly financial restraints, so government and private sector must lend a helping hand to our athletes, who are very talented and committed to win medals for the country.

“The PSB must provide federation with latest equipment. The amount of Rs 6 million is pending with the PSB, which was sanctioned for conducting European Championship in Islamabad, allocated by International Taekwondo Federation. Unfortunately, due to security issues, the event was later held back by international body, but the PSB had promised to provide us with latest equipment, which could help athletes a great deal. The world is changed now and we have to adopt to fast changing things, if we want to win medals at international level,” Saba concluded.