Pakistani Players Excel In South Asian Junior Cadet TT

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22th july, 2016) : Pakistan has stunning performance in the recently concluded South Asian Junior Table Tennis Championship held at Karachi. This was stated by Secretary General Pakistan Table Tennis Federation Kifayat Ullah Orakzai while talking to a reception organized in the honor of the national team by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sports Writers Association here at Media Center of the Qayyum Sports Complex on Friday. He said the national team including Fahad Khawjah (captain), Obaid Shah and Umam Khawjah, all of hailing from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and women players comprising Kainat (captain), Iqra and Nirma, also from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have represented Pakistan by winning silver medal in the male Team event and bronze medal in the individual event while in female Kainat won bronze medals in the individual as well as team event. He said Pakistan could have won the Championship against Sri Lanka and Maldives, the two other teams, participated in the South Asian Junior Cadet event but lack of due facilities for the players it could not perform up to the mark.

He said, the Sri Lankan team were trained in Germany and soon after the SA Championship Sri Lankan team were left for China for a long duration camp but our players have not such facilities of foreign coaching. Our players are practicing on cemented court rather on synthetic track, Kainat said.

We went to Karachi on bus after 23 hours long journey and had tough battle against strong team of Sri Lanka as a result we lost, she added. Iqra, who won bronze medal, said that Table Tennis is very costly and only a racket is of Rs.

12000 to 15000 which is not affordable for a common player hailing from a middle class family. She asked the government to make a comprehensive plan to boost Pakistan sports at international level as other countries are spending huge money in facilitating their players.