Camp for young volleyball players in full swing

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) has set up a camp of juniors and youth here at Qayyum Sports Complex in an effort to find a few young players to field its national youth and junior sides in Asian Youth and Junior Championships to be held next year.

There are 16 players each in youth and junior categories in the camp, being supervised by Iranian coach Hamid Movahedi.

The players were selected through a talent-hunt programme which was conducted in all those areas where volleyball is a popular game. Bannu, Lahore, Shakargarh and Sahiwal are among the prominent places from where the talent has come.

The camp was established on September 15. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has once again proved that it is a province which can give to the nation top-level volleyball players. The PVBF chief Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqoob is very happy with the talent in the province. “Around 60 percent of the talented players come from KP,” Yaqoob told ‘The News’.

He praised Bannu for its contribution to Pakistan’s volleyball strength. “We have found good talent in KP but in Bannu there are amazing boys,” said the PVF chief, who is also vice-president of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA).

Pakistan have always been a threatening force in volleyball in Asia but have not progressed much because of lack of investment by the government. “I am very happy that we have got some youngsters of six feet four inch height,” Yaqoob said.

He said that such exercises would serve two purposes. “We are going to field our youth (under-18) and junior (under-20) sides in the continental youth and junior championships which will be held next year in summer in Iran and Bahrain, respectively. And next year we also plan to find some under-23 boys for the national side which will feature in the Asian Games in Indonesia,” Yaqoob said.Both Asian Youth and Asian Junior events will also serve as qualifiers for the respective World Championships.

He said that the PVF had been trying its best to expand its base. “We request all people if they know about talent in their areas they can contact us. We have set up a proper international test criteria and if a new player passes that test we will groom him for national duty,” Yaqoob said.

During the past few years, volleyball has gone down due to the fight among sports bodies.Movahedi, who is from Iran, desires to train Pakistan players under the modern systems. His coaching has started yielding results. Pakistan played a few tough matches against the toughest sides of Asia at the Islamic Games, World Championship qualifiers and Asian Championships.

Pakistan surprised everyone in 2007-08 when the junior side won a bronze medal at Asian Junior Championship. Iranian coach Ali Reza Moameri was acting as the coach of the national brigade then.