ISLAMABAD: Iranian coach Sajjad Kazmi is set to join the Pakistan`s national training camp in Islamabad to prepare the athletes for major internationalevents, a senior ofhcialof the Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) said on Wednesday.

`Pve just talked to Sajjad, he was at the Pakistan Embassy in Tehran to obtain his visa.

Hopefully, he will be in Islamabad in a day or so to start training our athletes,` PJF vice-president Masood Ahmed told APP.

`Our past experience with Sajjad has been very good. Hence, we`ve hired him once again for the key international events.

Sajjad, who had a five-year coaching stint with Pakistan from 2012 to 2016, is a Black Belt 6 DAN.

`We have a very hectic calendar year for our judokas who will be featuring in a host of important competitions. Initially,we`ve hired his [Sajjad`s] services at least for a year,` Masood said.

Pakistan`s judokas are scheduled to participate in this year`s Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and the Islamic Solidarity Games.

According to Masood, during Sajjad`s last stint with Pakistan, the judokas exhibited great performance.

Sajjad honed the skills of Qaiser Afridi, Pakistan`s top-notch judoka, who is set to represent the country at this year`s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in -100kg division along with Olympian Shah Hussain Shah who will be competing in the -90kg category for the first time.

The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) had arranged a one-month camp in Quetta to provide training to the national judokas, the PJF vice-president added.

`But today [Wednesday] weshifted that camp to the Pakistan Sports Complex in Islamabad where 25 judokas will train under Sajjad and other national coaches,` Masood stated.

`After three weeks, we are planning to move the camp to Abbottabad.

Masood continued, `Our first focus is the Commonwealth Games. Shah and Afridi`s participation in these Games is confirmed. But we also want to field at least two more judokas in thisevent Hamid Ali (+100kg) of Pakistan Navy and Haseeb Mustafa (-81kg) of the Higher Education Commission. In this regard, we`ve written to the Pakistan Olympic Association as well as the PSB.

Hamid is a gold medallist of the 2019 South Asian Games staged in Kathmandu, while Haseeb is another bright prospect, who has consistently exhibited his class at the national level.-APP