Indian team also in Faisalabad for int’l handball

KARACHI: All foreign teams, including India, on Friday reached Faisalabad 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 at 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 junior event, the rest of 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 scorer. Shafiq said that water-tight security arrangements had been made for conducting the competitions peacefully.

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 as cash prizes.

“I cannot say 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 AHF to supervise the trophy.

The event had held last time in Pakistan in 2014 at the same venue. Pakistan junior team had clinched gold in the competitions. However the same Pakistani team then 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 would make it to the continental trophy which will be held later this year in a venue yet to be decided.

The managers’ meeting was scheduled to be held late Friday night. The competitions would be formally opened at 6:30pm on Saturday. Before the opening ceremony two matches will be held. Nepal will face Pakistan in youth event opener at 10am. Both Nepal and Pakistan will also clash in the junior event opener also at 3:15pm. Shafiq said that it was not yet confirmed who would open the competitions. Eial Awad Yaser, Alzyyat Akram (both Jordon), Al Wahibi Khamis, Al Shahi Omar (both Oman), Kawai Norinage, Usui Ken (both Japan), Alsager Mohammed, Al Sugufi Ali Mohammed (both Saudi Arabia) while Sultan Mehmood and Asif Ali (both Pakistan) will serve as referees.