IHF Youth, Junior Trophy from March 10 in Faisalabad

KARACHI: Pakistan Handball Federation (PHF) is set to organise the International Handball Federation (IHF) South and Central Asia Youth and Junior Trophy from March 10-15 at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad’s international handball court.

The organisers said on Tuesday that Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives and Nepal have confirmed their entries in the event in which under-18 players will compete in the youth category and under-20 in the junior category.

The organisers said that the participation of Sri Lanka and Yemen was also expected. They said that IHF had deputed international referees and technical delegates to conduct the competitions.

The referees are Eial Awad Yaser, Alzyyat Akram (from Jordon), Al Wahibi Khamis, Al Shahi Omar (Oman), Kawai Norinage, Usui Ken (Japan), Alsager Mohammed, Al Sugufi Ali Mohammed (Saudi Arabia), Sultan Mehmood, Asif Ali (Pakistan).

Posavec Josip of Croatia, Zain Al Abedin of Jordon and Ikramov Ulugbek of Uzbekistan will serve as technical delegates.Deputy Commissioner Faisalabad Salman Ghani has been appointed as the chairman organising committee. Azhar Chaudhry will serve as the organising secretary.

This is the second time that Pakistan is organising the trophy at Faisalabad. It had been held in 2014 at the same venue in which Pakistan’s junior side won gold.The organisers said that during the competitions a coaches course would also be conducted by the IHF expert Ali Raza Habibi from Iran. The president of PHF Mohammad Shafiq, who is also the secretary of the Asian Handball Federation (AHF), has been nominated as representative of the IHF and AHF to supervise this trophy.

The opening ceremony and cultural show will be held on March 10 at 6pm. The final of the junior category will be conducted on March 15 at 2:30pm. The PHF hoped that Pakistan junior side would live up to the expectations in the competitions.