LAHORE: Ghulam Dastgir Butt, father of the country’s leading weightlifter Nooh Dastgir Butt, on Monday rushed to the support of his son Nooh and said that he (Nooh) is not registered with the interim committee which has been formed by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) to run the weightlifting affairs in the country.
“Pakistan Weightlifting Federation (PWLF) claims that my son Nooh Dastgir Butt is registered with the interim committee. It’s a false claim. I am father of weightlifters Nooh Dastgir Butt and Hanzala Dastgir Butt and we have never indulged in any kind of politics and have never been part of any parallel body,” Ghulam Dastgir told ‘The News’ on Monday.
“We have also emailed the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) and PWLF and informed them that we are not part of any politics. We play weightlifting and we will continue playing weightlifting. We are not associated with any kind of politics,” said Ghulam Dastgir, also a former international weightlifter.
Earlier, Commonwealth Games gold medalist weightlifter Nooh Dastgir Butt underwent random dope testing conducted by the International Testing Agency (ITA) in Gujranwala following one miss that was more due to his traveling commitments.
The renowned weightlifter told ‘The News’ that last week he underwent the random dope tests according to the laid down WADA requirements.
“A random test was conducted on me last week as a special ITA team visited my training facility in Gujranwala. I always keep WADA deputed ITA team in the loop wherever I go,” the gold medal winner said.
WADA has recently reported one miss from Nooh Butt that was the result of his traveling commitments. Every elite athlete will have to keep WADA in the loop on his whereabouts as the team can conduct surprise tests at any time.
A few months back when Nooh was traveling from one place to another for competition purposes, he forgot to intimate the WADA officials.
“It was not my fault as those handling our traveling arrangements did not communicate the concerned about my movement. Since then I have gone through many tests including the one conducted last week,” the country’s top weightlifter Nooh Butt, when approached, said.
During the Commonwealth Games In 109+kg category, Butt lifted 173kg in snatch while in clean and jerk, he lifted 232kg and set another record. Overall, Butt lifted 405kg which is also a record in CWG 2022.
Our Correspondent