WSF to investigate Hamza’s age on Egypt’s request

KARACHI: World Squash Federation (WSF) has announced launching an investigation to determine the age of Hamza Khan of Pakistan, who recently won World Junior Championship.

In a statement on Friday, the WSF confirmed that they had received a request from the Egyptian Squash Federation on Thursday evening to confirm the age of Hamza.

“Prior to all WSF sanctioned junior events, players must submit their passport and Squash Personal Identification Number (SPIN) to prove identity, nationality and age. As the recognised International Federation of the sport, the WSF has a responsibility to fully investigate the request from the Egyptian Squash Federation. There will be no further comment until the investigation is complete,” stated WSF.

Hamza won the title after defeating Egypt’s Mohamed Zakaria, aged 15 plus, in the final in Australia on Sunday. Earlier, Ashraf Hanafi, an official of Egyptian Squash who is also a member of WSF’s Coaching Commission, had announced that he would lodge an official complaint with WSF that Hamza Khan from Pakistan was overage.

The issue over Hamza’s age was raised by Egyptian Squash when someone from Pakistan shared with them the official age test results of 45 players including Hamza conducted by Pakistan Squash Federation at AFIRI in Rawalpindi in 2021.

The results showed Hamza’s age between 17 to 17.6 years and he was allowed to play in the under-19 category till July 2022.

PSF conducted another bone test of a number of players including Hamza from Chughtai Lab in June before leaving for the World Championship and the results showed his age 18 plus.

When contacted, Hamza’s father Niazullah Khan said that they submitted all required documents including FRC, Form B, and age verification results with WSF before the championship.

“The official results of age tests in 2021 shared by someone from Pakistan with Egyptian Squash are fake,” said Niazullah.

He added that he just talked to the PSF officials and they told him to enjoy the victory as they would take care of this issue.

While responding on WSF statement, Secretary PSF Zafaryab Iqbal told Geo News that PSF is a professional organisation and they conduct age tests of players before sending them to age group international events.

“We send our players to the events only after conducting medial and bone tests to verify their ages,” said Zafaryab, adding that they conducted age test of Hamza as well before sending him for the World Junior Championship. He added that all documents of Hamza Khan showed that his age was right. “WSF has not yet contacted PSF in this regard. We will respond officially to the WSF when then contact us,” stated Secretary PSF.