Omar Saeed, the country's team leader at last week's Asian Olympic qualifier for Tokyo 2020, told Dawn the coach was expected to arrive in July.

Appointing an official from the birthplace of taekwondo should aid the PTF after none of its athletes were able to book an Olympic place through the qualifier in Amman in Jordan.

With the two finalists in each weight division securing a spot, Haroon Khan was one victory away from success but lost his men's under-58 kilograms semi-final to Thailand's Asian number one Ramnarong Sawekwiharee.

Taimur Saeed lost in the men's over-80kg quarter-finals while Aneila Aysha Afsar reached the same stage of the women's under-49kg competition.

Zoya Sabir lost in the first round of the women's under-57kg event.

Pakistan has never qualified a taekwondo athlete for an Olympic Games and their preparations this year were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The team's schedule was to visit Bulgaria and Uzbekistan for international events and training which was disturbed by COVID-19," said Saeed to Dawn.

"The results would've been better if the corona episode had not distracted the players' progress.

"We are satisfied with our team's performance, two athletes played the quarter-finals and Haroon made it to the semis."

Khan added: "Of course I'm feeling sad for not qualifying for the Olympics but COVID-19 had a telling effect on our training for such a big event."