National Softball Academy inaugurated

KARACHI: The National Softball Academy (NSA) was formally inaugurated here at the Karachi Parsi Institute (KPI) at a glittering ceremony on Thursday.

Pakistan Olympic Association’s (POA) chief Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hasan inaugurated the academy, in which both boys and girls will be trained.

Arif said that the academy would help develop softball in Pakistan.“Medals will only come when children come to play. I am very happy that Softball Federation of Pakistan (SFP) has taken the initiative of establishing this academy,” he said.

“If you don’t enjoy you will never reach any height,” the POA chief stressed.He said that for softball equipment he had talked to the international federation and International Olympic Committee (IOC) and positive response had been received.

Earlier, SFP secretary Asif Azeem said that as many as 13 schools of Karachi had been registered. “Eight under-14 and under-19 teams have been formed,” he said. He announced that National Softball Championship would be held in September.Sindh Olympic Association (SOA) secretary Ahmed Ali Rajput, vice president Waseem Hashmi and NSA chairperson Tehmina Asif were also present on the occasion.