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Friday March 29, 2024

Pakistan to send four TT players for CW Games

By our correspondents
January 18, 2018

KARACHI: Pakistan has decided to field junior table tennis players in the Commonwealth Games slated to be held in Gold Coast, Australia, from April 4-15.

Four players, two boys and two girls, have been finalised for the quadrennial competitions.A senior official of Pakistan Table Tennis Federation (PTTF) told ‘The News’ that the country’s promising youngsters Mohammad Rameez, Fahad Khwaja, Fatima Khan and Hareem Anwar would represent Pakistan in Australia.

Swat-born Rameez and Lahore’s Fahad are 18 years old. Rameez recently finished as the runner-up in the men’s singles of the 54th National Table Tennis Championship held here at the Islamia Club’s gymnasium.

Lahore’s Fatima is the under-18 national champion. Sindh’s Hareem is under-18 national championship runner-up. Hareem won gold in the recently held Quaid-e-Azam Inter-Provincial Youth Games in Islamabad.

Pakistan will feature in individual events only as the country has not qualified for the team event because it did not feature in Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships.The PTTF official also revealed that Pakistan would field its men’s team in the World Championships to be held in Sweden in April. And it is expected that four players would be sent there.

“We will try to send four players to Sweden,” the official said. In order to pick the best available players for the World Championships, the PTTF has sought input from its major stakeholders.

It has been learnt that in the past the players were picked on the basis of national ranking. However, it has been proposed this time that trials be held to finalise the squad.“We are looking at each and every aspect and will decide after taking input from the stakeholders,” the PTTF official said.In the Commonwealth Games, an 89-member contingent of Pakistan will feature in ten disciplines.