Fastest athlete of Pakistan Shajar Abbas prefers to train in country instead of abroad

The young sprinter won gold medal in the National Athletics Championship

November 28, 2022
Shajar Abbas was the only Asian in the final of the Commonwealth Games 2022 — Twitter/ShajarAbbas

LAHORE: The fastest athlete of Pakistan, Shajar Abbas, has said he prefers to train in the country instead of going abroad and requested authorities to provide facilities for the athletes on their home soil.

Abbas won the 100 metre and 200 metre events in the National Athletics Championship held in Lahore. He has represented Pakistan in many international competitions, including the Commonwealth Games 2022 and Islamic Solidarity Games 2022.

Talking to the media in Lahore, Abbas said: "If we can qualify in international competitions and win medals while living in Pakistan, then why should we go abroad for training? If we can perform well now, we can perform well in the future. Give us training facilities in Pakistan itself, give us coaches for long camps, so that we would perform better."

Moreover, the 22-year-old called on the authorities to host more national events for athletes.

"The number of national level events in Pakistan is less. National Athletics Championship is being held after three years. Two to three national level events should be held in a year so that we can have national level sprinter competition," he concluded.

It should be mentioned here that Shajar was the only Asian athlete to make it to the 200m final of the Commonwealth Games 2022.

Sohail Imran is a senior reporter for Geo News.

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