Pakistan’s junior men’s hockey team preparing for Egypt series – Hockey News
Pakistan men’s junior hockey team coach, Rana Mujahid on July 25, had a talk with media at the National Hockey Stadium, Lahore regarding the team’s preparation for the Egypt series from August 6-12.
He shared that the team had performed in a stunning fashion at the Junior Asia Cup that was recently held in Singapore. The team worked hard to qualify into the Junior World Cup but failed to earn their place after getting beaten down by South Korea 0-1
in the semi-finals.
The coach said, “Most of the players in the team for Asia Cup were newly-inducted, inexperienced and appeared in any international event for the first time. Therefore, I requested the Pakistan Hockey Federation to send the junior hockey team to foreign tours
for international exposure and experience and mentally strong to handle the pressure in a better way.”
According to Mujahid, the training camp currently underway comprises of very talented juniors and each individual is separately being trained by different coaches as well as jointly being coached for meeting up their weaknesses.
The only shortfall they have is physical fitness that can be overcome by practice and then the players will be in a position to play any huge event against the world top teams.
He added, “In junior hockey team, there are many players who can become the major part of the national hockey team in future and can bring laurels for the country.”
In addition to their preparation, the head coach revealed that junior team’s forward, Bilal Qadir, recently met with a knee injury during practice at the camp and may have to be replaced with some other player for the Egypt series if he does not recover
in time.
The coach stated that efforts are being made for his recovery as soon as possible for allowing him a chance to prove his capability in the team.
Meanwhile, the core objective for the team is to make it into the Junior Hockey World Cup and to get enough international exposure to have the team them ready for the World Cup so that they stand a chance at such huge competitions.
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