2 September 2019

Zàhéér Ahmád almost made the Olympic dream

Zàhéér Ahmád from Pakistan got an invitation from IFSC who paid part of the trip and all the hotel costs for him participating in the Hachioji World Championship. What they forgot to say is that if he would have participated in all three disciplines, he would probably have gotten an invitation to Tokyo 2020, being the only Tripartite candidate competing. The Pakistani, who participated in Speed (26.37) and Lead (1+*) in Xiamen in 2016, did only start in Boulder (no zone) and Speed (false start) in Hachioji. His personal best is 7.95 in Speed. "I never played any sport in my school and in college career. I started Rock Climbing as a first sports in 2013 in my university life and we had our first sport climbing national facility in end of 2017, where we started our practice for international events without coach and physio, just eight guys with manual belay and manual timing. We were sent to China for training which help us a lot. Most of the time we are trying to just gather four persons; one for climb, one for timer and two for belaying. It's hard for me to gather four climbers among the 8 serious climbers in Pakistan. How does it feel knowing that if you had just participated in Lead you would probably have made it to Tokyo 2020? I am training speed climbing five days a week for almost two years now with a long term goal in my mind to make it to Paris 2024. Our resources are very limited with not even an auto-belay and auto-timer yet i like it. We are few guys training hard to improve and it was an honor for me to be selected for Hachioji. I am devastated if i just participated in Lead my dream would come true, which would definitely changed my life forever. I really hope my federation can ask IFSC why they forget to mention such an amazing and unique tripartite quota and if it would be still possible to make it to Tokyo. I appreciate this idea of giving opportunity to athletes for minor Olympic countries can make their dream come true. * It was actually his friend who climbed but he had taken the wrong starting number :)
0 comments
Most commented
Jernej Kruder sends Martin Krpan (9a) sans knee pads

Jernej Kruder, who won the Boulder World Cup in 2018, has done Martin Krpan (9a) in Mišja Peč. “I would like to expose something here: I spent many tries on t…

Welcome to Vertical-Life Web

Six years after partnering with 8a.nu, we’re excited to announce the unification of the 8a.nu website and the Vertical-Life app into a single platform: Vertical…

Will Bosi repeats Return of the Sleepwalker (9A)

William Bosi has made the second ascent of Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker (9A) in Black Velvet Canyon, after projecting it for 12 sessions. This was th…

Favorites
Katie Lamb makes history

Katie Lamb has become the first woman to climb 8C+ by completing Box Therapy (8C) in RMNP. Daniel Woods made the FA back in 2018, and only Drew Ruana and Sean B…

"It was dramatic to the very end." On the 8a finish of Project Big in Flatanger, Jakob Schubert explains that a horn broke and he was close to falling. The last three minutes of the video show just how much this climb means to him."This horn could have ended my career... This was the biggest mental …

Will Bosi repeats Return of the Sleepwalker (9A)

William Bosi has made the second ascent of Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker (9A) in Black Velvet Canyon, after projecting it for 12 sessions. This was th…