DG Sports Punjab Usman Anwar visits Under-17 hockey training camp

Lahore: Director General Sports Punjab Usman Anwar visited the Under-17 hockey training camp which began here at National Hockey Stadium on Saturday for the preparation of the Inter-Provincial Under-17 Boys’ Hockey Championship to be held at Hyderabad, Sindh from May 23 to 27.

DG SBP while encouraging the probables of the camp said the Punjab has got plenty of hockey talent at the grassroots level. He expressed his satisfaction over the training and praised the efforts of the coaches for training youth in a professional manner for the upcoming hockey tournament.

The final selection will be announced at the conclusion of the camp. Selection committee is comprised of Muhammad Hafeez Bhatti, Director Sports, Nadeem Anjum Rana Assistant Director Admin, Muhammad Nawaz Dogar and Khalid Iqbal provincial hockey coaches.

The camp probables are:

Goalkeepers: Hamad Bhatti (Faisalabad), Muhammad Adil (Lahore) and Abdur Rehman (TT Singh). Fullbacks: Waqas Butt and Bilal Khan (TT Singh), Usman and Raza (Vehari). Half backs: Absar (Bahawalpur), Farhan and Usman (Sargodha), Mahad (Lahore), Waqar, Ali and Rehan Butt (TT Singh) and Ali Raza (Faisalabad). Forwards: Husnain, Ibrar, Ali Hamza, Farman, Ahmer and Riaz (Faisalabad), Yasir and Syyam (TT Singh) and Fezan and Mehtab (Sargodha).

Meanwhile; Sports Board Punjab’s (SBP) young male and female athletes are set to feature in five Inter-Provincial Sports Tournaments from May 18 to June 5, 2015. The Inter-Provincial athletics, badminton, hockey, table tennis and squash tournaments will be competed in different venues of the country.

The Under-16 Girls and Under-17 Boys Inter-Provincial Athletics Championship will be staged in Peshawar from May 25 to 27. As many as 12 Under-16 girl and 15 U-17 boy players will represent SBP in the event. The SBP athletes will take part in camp training from May 17 to 23.

Peshawar will also host Under-16 Girls and Under-17 Boys badminton event from May 20 to 22 in which SBP will send 10 players (5 boys and 5 girls). The badminton camp will run from May 17 to 18.

The Under-16 Girls and Under-17 Boys Inter-Provincial Table Tennis Championship will be played at Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir from May 21 to 23. 10 players (5 boys and 5 girls) will represent SBP in the tourney.

The Under-16 Girls Hockey Championship will be organized at Hyderabad from June 1 to 5, 2015 while the Under-17 Boys Hockey event is scheduled to be held at Mirpur Khas May 23 to 27.

SBP’s 5-member U-17 Boys’ squash team will also feature in the Inter-Provincial event which is going to be played at Karachi from May 18, 2015.