Athens Olympics: Pakistan to open its campaign in Boxing
Pakistan Times Sports Desk

ATHENS (Greece): Pakistan will be opening its campaign in the Athens Olympic by taking part in the boxing competition, which commences here today (Saturday).

Out of five member boxing team Ahmad Ali will be first boxer exchanging punches with his respective rival in the 75 kg bout and with his bout Pakistan makes its official participation in the 17-day Games.

According to the programme made available of 26-member Pakistan contingent taking part in the Olympic Games, Faisal Karim will be appearing in 64 kgs bout on August 15, Sohail in 57 kgs on August 16, Asghar in 60kgs on August 16 and Mehar Ullah, the country’s celebrated boxer on in 54 kgs on August 17.

Pakistan's next participation is in hockey playing Germany on August 15, Egypt on August 17, South Korea on August 19, Spain on August 21 and England on August 23.

Swimmers Mumtaz Ahmad and young Rubaba Raza will be featuring in the swimming competition on August 28 and August 20.

The lone shooter Khurram Inam will try his luck in Skeet event on August 21. Athletes Muhammad Sajid and Sumera Zahoor will be running in heats of athletic event on August 20 and August 24 and it would signal the end of participation of Pakistan in Athens if it failed to qualify for the semi finals of the hockey.

Tickets of Pak-England hockey match sold out

Meanwhile, tickets of Pakistan and England hockey match were sold out ten days ahead of the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics and it still remains a mystery as to how the tickets of that last league match of the Pakistan pool vanished so much earlier before the start of the event.

Pakistan is scheduled to take on England on August 23 in its Pool 'A' match. The tickets of that match were not available on the booths or banks nor on the internet much before the opening of the summer Olympics Games.

The sell out of a full 7000 house is also a total surprise for the organising committee of the Athens Olympics. The match does not even seem very important as before it the qualification of the teams for the semi final stage will already be decided.

Pakistani expatriates living in capital Athens have a special passion for hockey. Their main interest in Olympics is hockey. They want to watch all the matches of the Pakistan but since the tickets of Pak-England match already sold out they feel frustrated. Majority of them bought the tickets of most of the matches which Pakistan team will play in its pool against Germany, Egypt, South Korea and Spain well in advance.

When contacted, a spokesman of the organizing committee in Athens Friday confirmed that no ticket was available for that particular match. "The tickets for Pakistan's other pool matches are still available, barring their the match against England", he said.

"It is a mystery unsolved for us and we do not know the reason of selling out of all the tickets much before the start of the event  (Olympics)", he added.

A noted Pakistani cardiologist based in Athens, Dr Tahir Kazmi who is a keen follower of hockey also expressed his surprise over the non-availability of the tickets and said he failed to understand why the tickets were not available.

"I have been struggling for the past 15 days to get the tickets of that match but I have been informed that all of them were already sold out", said Kazmi.

Dr Hamid Shah, another Pakistani doctor working in Athens for the past 20 years, said he also failed to buy the tickets of Pakistan-England match and expressed his disappointment for being deprived of the cherished opportunity.

Similar sentiments were expressed by a number of Pakistani community members who believe that their team is fully capable of bringing glory to the country.●