KARACHI
\nPakistan\u2019s leading equestrian Usman Khan will make his Asian Games debut in Japan this month after years of financial and sporting setbacks, but the landmark moment will come with a disappointment.
\nThe eventer is not expected to take part in the opening ceremony scheduled for September 19 at Aichi-Nagoya.
\nThe Asian Games begin in Japan on September 19, with Usman scheduled to arrive in Tokyo on September 16. His discipline, however, has not been included in the list of sports whose athletes are due to participate in the opening ceremony.
\nPakistan\u2019s athletes from badminton, women\u2019s cricket, fencing, kabaddi, martial arts, rowing, squash, table tennis and wushu are currently listed for the ceremony.
\nFor Usman, the omission would mean missing a rare opportunity to walk into an Asian Games opening ceremony as part of Pakistan\u2019s contingent.
\nThe France-based rider has qualified for the Asian Games four times but was unable to compete at the previous three editions because of financial constraints. His participation in Japan, therefore, represents both a personal milestone and a breakthrough for Pakistan\u2019s equestrian sport.
\nUsman and his horse Eden du Veret have arrived safely in Aachen, Germany, from France, where both are undergoing ten-day pre-export quarantine before travelling to Japan.
\nEden, whose stable name is Miraj, will become the first horse sent by Pakistan to the Asian Games, while Usman\u2019s participation represents a landmark for the country in the Olympic discipline of eventing.
\nThe equestrian competition will be held at Tokyo\u2019s JRA Equestrian Park from September 20 to 23.
\nEventing combines three disciplines including dressage, cross country and show jumping, demanding both technical precision and endurance from horse and rider.
\nUsman and Mirage enter the competition as the No 1 ranked combination in the FEI Middle East and Africa region. His international record includes two gold medals, four silver medals and one bronze at the FEI events, making him one of Pakistan\u2019s most accomplished riders in an Olympic equestrian discipline.
\nUsman\u2019s journey to the Asian Games has been marked by setbacks that could have ended his international career.
\nHe initially qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, but his horse Azad Kashmir died, forcing him to begin the qualification process again.
\nLater, while competing with another horse, Kasheer, tragedy struck again. The pair was close to the finish line in Olympic qualifying event in Australia when an accident occurred, killing Kasheer and leaving Usman critically injured. Had they crossed the finish line they would have been in the Tokyo Olympics.
\nHe was hospitalised and spent months recovering.
\nThe incident did not end his ambitions. Usman returned to training and eventually qualified for the Paris Olympics.
\nBut Olympic qualification in eventing requires athletes to maintain the necessary ranking until the qualification deadline. Financial difficulties forced Usman to miss several competitions, causing his ranking to slip and leaving him on the reserve list.
\nHe could potentially have entered the Paris Games if a qualified rider withdrew, but chose not to pursue that opportunity because he believed his horse was still too young and inexperienced.
\nInstead, he focused on developing the horse and building towards the qualification process for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
\nThe Asian Games now provide Usman with another major international stage and valuable competition experience as he prepares for his next Olympic challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KARACHI Pakistan\u2019s leading equestrian Usman Khan will make his Asian Games debut in Japan this month after years of financial and sporting setbacks, but the landmark moment will come with a disappointment. The eventer is not expected to take part in the opening ceremony scheduled for September 19 at Aichi-Nagoya. The Asian Games begin in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":102653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102672,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102649\/revisions\/102672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}