Pak Contingent Off To Brazil For Rio Olympics

(@rukhshanmir)

Pak contingent off to Brazil for Rio Olympics

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd August, 2016) : A seventeen-member Pakistan contingent has departed for Brazil to feature in the Olympic Games 2016, scheduled to be held at Rio de Janeiro from August 5 to 21.

"The contingent includes seven athletes and 10 officials," a Pakistan Sports board official told APP on Tuesday. This is Pakistan's smallest ever contingent for Olympics as it is for the first time national hockey team is not featuring in the coveted sports event as it failed to qualify.

Most of the Pakistani athletes earned a chance to represent the country in the multi-sports event through wildcard entry. Judoka Hussain Shah is the only athlete, who made a cut to the event under continental quota.

The other athletes to represent the country in the Olympics include swimmers Lianna Swan and Haris Bandey, shooters Ghulam Mustafa and Minahal Sohail and two sprinters. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) allows national Olympic committees of various countries with few or without any athletes to participate in the coveted sports events by offering wild cards to their athletes. A player or a team that has not qualified through the normal competitive channel receives a wildcard entry.

In Olympics too, wildcards are offered to countries, whose athletes fail to meet the qualification standards.