KARACHI: Pakistan’s sports climber Iqra Jilani has set her sights on making history for the country at the upcoming Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 23.
Iqra told JEE News that she wants to win a medal in sports climbing and has been working hard for the past three months to achieve her goals.
The 25-year-old, who holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and works in the energy sector in Islamabad, is one of five climbers selected to represent Pakistan at the Asian Games.
His other associates are Amani Jannat, Fazal Wadud, Zaheer Ahmed, and Abuzar Faiz.
“We have been working hard for the last three months in our camp under the supervision of Pakistan Sports Board and Alpine Club of Pakistan. All athletes perform at their best during training sessions,” he said.
“We want to make Pakistan one of the top three countries in mountaineering by winning medals at the Games,” Iqra said.
Sports climbing was first included in the Asian Games in 2018 and is set to make its second appearance this year. This year’s Asian Games Mountaineering competitions will be held from September 28 to October 2. Athletes from different countries will compete for six gold medals.
Iqra and Amani are the first Pakistani women to participate in an Asian Games mountaineering event. In the last edition of the Asian Games, where mountaineering made its debut, Pakistan was represented by two male athletes – Mushahid Hussain and Sajid Aslam.
He said that it is a moment of honor and pride for me to represent Pakistan in the Asian Games.
Hoping for a better result, Iqra also agreed that there would be tough competition against players from other countries, particularly China, Indonesia and Japan.
The young mountaineer said that she considers Naila Kayani, Pakistan’s most successful mountaineer, as her role model along with mountaineering and trekking.
“She is an inspiration to all of us,” Iqra said of Naila. Iqra added that he trekked to K2 base camp last year.
In response to a question, he said that participating in mountaineering can meet the endurance and fitness level required for sport mountaineering, but the dynamics of the two sports are different.
“In sport climbing, you have to climb an artificial wall in a short period of time whereas in mountaineering, you are conquering different peaks without any time limit and in different challenging environments,” he said.
“You can certainly gain a level of fitness and endurance, but if you want to participate in sport climbing you need to practice climbing the wall,” he concluded.
