Final phase of Pakistan’s Junior Hockey Camp begins: Hockey News
The final phase of Pakistan’s junior hockey camp is being held by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) today, June 10. The training camp is set-up at the Hockey Club of Pakistan Stadium in Karachi.
The training camp is set-up for preparing the team for the Singapore’s Junior Asia Cup, starting from June 17-26. In the event, the team will be defending their title that they previously won two years back in Yangon, Myanmar.
A total of 23 players were getting trained at the camp. Moreover, there will be six more players joining the final phase of the camp tomorrow that were busy in the Islamabad’s senior hockey camp, currently being conducted at the Naseer Bunda Stadium.
Yesterday, Coach and former Olympian, Ahmed Alam, said, “These players were released from the seniors’ camp in Islamabad after national trials for Europe tour, will arrive here on Friday to start training from Saturday.”
These six players include the captain named Mazhar Abbas, Muhammad Rizwan, Arsalan Qadir, Muhammad Irfan, Bilal Qadir and Ali Shah.
According to Alam, this addition will raise the camp presence to 29 players and stated the fact that these players were already picked by the selection committee for playing the Junior Asia Cup in Singapore, representing Pakistan's junior side.
The 18-member junior side, to be selected, will be leaving for Singapore on June 14 and will be accompanied by the Coach, Ahmed Alam, and Manager, Mazhar Ahmed.
Regarding the small number of juniors selected for the Europe Tour, Senior men hockey team’s manager, Khawaja Muhammad Junaid, commented, "We want to carry some junior players with the team like Muhammad Rizwan who was the part of national team at Azlan
Shah Cup. But the junior team is going to play the Asia Cup in Singapore and it needs players for better results.”
Therefore, the over-lapping schedule of both the international events led the team’s selection to comprise more of the veteran players than the younger ones.
However, Junaid seemed to be contented with the team selected for the Europe Tour that will be heading for Dublin this month to play the UCD Four-Nation Tournament.
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