Fitness vital but not everything

KARACHI - Physical fitness is an important part in archiving success in sports but there are other areas such as individual brilliance, team combination, good team management and the ability to exploit weakness of the opponents and most of all luck without which even a supremely fit team could not register victories. This is the considered view of Pakistans former international 110 metres hurdler M Talib who was invited to give specialised fitness training to 1984 Los Angeles Olympic gold winning hockey team. Recalling the events he said in an interview here Monday that the then PHF secretary Brig SMH Atif had held a meeting with him to discuss how to get the Los Angeles bound team physically fitter. When told that it could be done through specialised fitness training in the limited time available, Atif requested Pakistan Customs where Talib was a senior inspector to release him (Talib) for supervising specialised fitness training. He said both the fitness and luck combined with brilliant performance of the team under captain Manzoor Junior helped Pakistan win its first Olympic gold on astro turf. He said Manzoor Junior has suffered ankle sprain during the pre-Olympic training period and he had arranged special training due to which the mercurial attacker attained full fitness. He said Manzoor Junior has spoken about the importance of fitness while expressing his views on the Champions Trophy in Auckland (New Zealand) where Pakistan finished seventh. He said it would have been good he recalled what the fitness trainer had done for him and the team. Talib, who hold fitness training diplomas from the then West Germany, said there were no two opinions about the importance of fitness but stressing that only fitness could help win was not hundred percent correct. He said after PHF inducted the Dutch Michel Van Dan Heuval as coach the level of fitness of Pakistan team had gone up and it was reflected in performances of the team in a number of events in the recent past. He said, Pakistan unfortunately do not have the culture where the common man and particularly the sportsmen personally and individually try to be fit. Pakistan has individual talent and there are some brilliant individual players but they were not as fit as they should be. He said it was surprising to note that the players feel that it was the responsibility of the PHF to make them fit. He said if one looked at the past performances of Pakistan teams in Olympic, World Cups, Asian Games and Champions Trophy one could easily see that the team had a number of superstars who carried the team. It is not necessary that all the playing eleven should be of superstars. A team needed a superstar and couple of good players who could carry the team. Shabaz Ahmed senior was the one when he played for Pakistan and it was in Sydney World Cup, he alone made the difference in the final against Holland, he added. He said that Pakistan hockey had potential and could still do better in London Olympics in 2012 but the players had to work extra hard.