Afghan
Olympic team leaves to train on Greek island
By STEPHEN GRAHAM |
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's
Olympic team left Friday for a Greek island training
camp, where they'll hone their skills in hopes of
putting this war-ravaged country back on the sporting
map.
This summer in Athens, the contingent
of three men and two women will become the first
athletes from their country to compete in the Olympics
since 1996.
"I want to bring back a good result
for Afghanistan," said boxer Bashamal Sultani, the only
athlete who came close to qualifying for the games on
merit.
Olympic officials gave Afghanistan
five wild-cards entries.
The highest hopes are pinned on
Sultani, a wiry 19-year-old welterweight who began
boxing four years ago. He clinched third place in the
Asian Championships in February, but was hampered by a
thumb injury during an Olympic qualifying competition in
Pakistan this month.
Afghanistan was banned from the 2000
Sydney Games because the Taliban regime barred women
from participating in sports, but the country competed
in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
The Afghan team was to fly Friday to
Istanbul, and then to the island of Lesbos, where Greek
authorities set up training facilities.
Years of war robbed Afghanistan's
athletes of most training facilities. And most of the
best coaches who fled during the conflict haven't
returned.
Fariba Rezahi, an 18-year-old student
from Kabul competing in judo, has been undergoing
intensive training at a gym on the base of Kabul's
international peacekeeping force. She said she was
looking forward to her first bout in the Aug. 13-29
games.
"I'm relaxed. It's a good thing for
the women of Afghanistan and the world to see," said
Rehazi, wearing a tracksuit and posing with her
teammates for photos in a garden at the airport.
Her father, Ghulam Reza, clutching
his daughter's suitcase, said he initially hesitated to
let her go abroad.
"In the end," he said,
"I relented for the sake of Afghanistan, to help end its
isolation." |