ITTF South Asia Hopes Week and Challenge programme begins

KARACHI: The ITTF South Asia Hopes Week and Challenge programme, featuring under-12 boys and girls from three countries, started here at Habib Public School on Monday.

In the week-long programme, two boys and two girls each, along with two coaches each from Pakistan and Sri Lanka, are participating. There is one boy with a coach from the Maldives.

International Table Tennis Federation’s (ITTF) coach Ahmed Dawlatli from Egypt is supervising the proceedings as head coach.

Pakistan’s former star Arif Khan had been assigned the task to serve as competition manager. Because of Arif’s engagement in the ITTF assignment in Nepal, Salim Ahmed Sheikh, a senior official of Pakistan Table Tennis Federation (PTTF), is serving as the event coordinator with the Egyptian.

Arif will return from Kathmandu on January 1.

Arif and Ahmed in 1975 qualified for the quarter-finals stage of the men’s doubles of the Invitational Tournament in Lagos, Nigeria.

For the first four days, focus will be on training and coaching. Competitions will be held on the subsequent two days and the event will come to an end on February 2.

Two top boys and two girls will qualify for the Asian Hopes Week which will be staged in East Asia from which players will be selected to attend the World Hopes Week.

Umam Khwaja and Khwaja Habib-ur-Rehman from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Maheen Sheraz (Lahore) and Maria Tazeem (Karachi) are representing Pakistan.

They are accompanied by their coaches Humaira and Khawar Mehmood, both from Karachi. Pakistan have fielded the top players of the Hopes Week programme which Sindh Table Tennis Association (STTA) organised here recently.

India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal did not send their players due to various reasons.

Commissioner Karachi Shoaib Siddiqui also witnessed the activity for a brief time.

The ITTF will give PTTF 3000 dollars, while Rs300,000 has been managed by the organisers through sponsorship.