IHF Youth and Junior Trophy set to being today

KARACHI: All foreign teams, including India, reached Faisalabad on Friday to feature in the International Handball Federation (IHF) South and Central Asian Youth and Junior Trophy 2018 which will explode into action at the international handball court of the Agriculture University, Faisalabad.

“Yes, all teams and technical delegates have arrived today and the event will start tomorrow,” Pakistan Handball Federation’s (PHF) president Mohammad Shafiq told ‘The News’ from Faisalabad.

Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, Afghanistan and hosts Pakistan are taking part in the competitions. Shafiq said that except Afghanistan, which is featuring in only the junior event, the nations are set to field their teams in both youth and junior categories.

He said that Kuwait-based Pakistani Mehmood Alam Khokhar will serve as the scorer. Shafiq said that water-tight security arrangements had been made for the competitions.

He said that the Faisalabad government had promised to give away cash prizes to the teams. However, he did not mention how much amount would be handed over to the leading outfits. “I cannot say anything about the actual amount,” said Shafiq, who is also the secretary of Asian Handball Federation (AHF).

Shafiq has been nominated as representative of the IHF and the AHF to supervise the trophy.Pakistan first hosted the event in 2014 at the same venue. Pakistan junior team clinched gold in those competitions.

The same Pakistani team finished with a bronze in the same event held in Dhaka in 2016. India will defend both the youth and junior titles of the competitions which will last till March 15.

The winners in each category will make it to the continental trophy which will be held later this year at a venue yet to be decided.“It will be held this year but the venue has not yet been decided,” said Shafiq, also a senior official of Pakistan Olympic Association (POA).

The visiting sides are staying at a three-star hotel. The managers’ meeting was scheduled to be held late Friday evening. The competitions will formally open at 6:30pm on Saturday (today).

Before the opening ceremony two matches will be held. Nepal will face Pakistan in youth event opener at 10am. Nepal and Pakistan will also clash in the junior event opener, at 3:15pm. Shafiq said that it was not yet confirmed who would open the competitions.

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

Posavec Josip of Croatia, Zain Al Abedin of Jordon and Ikramov Ulugbek of Uzbekistan will act as technical delegates.On the sidelines of the competitions, a coaching course will be conducted by the IHF expert Ali Raza Habibi from Iran. Shafiq also confirmed that IHF is meeting air-fare and boarding expenses of the teams.