KARACHI: “My biggest goal is to win the medal here in Tokyo of course,” Pakistan’s premier women paralympian Anila Izzat Baig asserts herself as she talks about how it is her second time in Tokyo and how her ambition is her driving force so far, not just for herself as an athlete, but for being a Pakistani and a woman.
Anila is one of the two paralympians who are representing Pakistan at the Paralympics in Tokyo.
Anila will be competing in her discus throw event in category F64 on Sunday in the early hours, according to the Pakistan time.
The Faisalabad-based paralympian feels that so far the training in Tokyo, since the three-member contingent have arrived for the Games, have been going well but her thoughts are filled with gratitude and worry at the same time for the future.
“We are training here in Tokyo yes, and this has been great,” Anila told The Media. “I’m very grateful to the National Paralympics Committee (NPC) of Pakistan who really helped us. I’m here because of them. She is in Tokyo with Pakistani Paralympics legend Haider Ali, who became the first and the only Pakistani to win a medal at Paralympics Summer Games in 2008 (silver) and again in Rio in 2016.
Anila is making her debut in Paralympics, and she qualified for it through the event in Dubai in 2019. Meanwhile, she remembers her journey vividly as to what representing Pakistan means and how she became an athlete.
“I started getting into sports when I was in the school, Government Girls High School, and there I had my fellow athlete and coach Mudassir Baig. He told me that if I really am interested in sports I should contact the NPC. I contacted them and that is how my journey started. They guided me and back in 2009, I even came to Tokyo for an event. Now I’m here again and this feels surreal, but it is motivating that I can win a medal here again, like I did before.”
Anila is an inspirational individual. The 26-year-old contracted polio when she was just seven months old. Before picking sports at school, she says that at first she had to convince her father and her brothers. —agencies
