PVF fighting against odds to prepare for Asian U-23 Volleyball

KARACHI: Pakistan Volleyball Federation (PVF) is fighting against all odds to prepare national lot for this year’s Asian Men’s Under-23 Volleyball Championship which will be held in Myanmar in August.

With the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) and the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) doing nothing for taking care of national sports with the federations having given not a single penny for the last seven months, the PVF has been running the camp at the Sports Board Punjab (SBP) facility at Lahore through its own resources for the last one month.

“It was an important event and we wanted to prepare well as we have 20 to 22 much better boys. We had requested Sports Board Punjab and we are thankful to it that it at least gave us hostel and training facility whose expenses we are meeting by ourselves,” a PVF senior official told ‘The News’. The official was quick to add that the PVF had requested the PSB for the camp in Islamabad. “We have filed our request with the Board for the camp in Islamabad and let’s see how it will respond,” the official said. The camp is being supervised by the Iranian coach Hamid Movahedi.

Having taken charge in early 2017 as Pakistan coach Movahedi has played a key role in the build-up of the country’s various age-group teams. He not only raised a strong junior side but also for the first time in history formed a youth team which he kept with the juniors for months in training camp.

Under his coaching Pakistan, though, finished eighth in the 18th Asian Games last year but his charges surprised everyone when they shocked both strong China and India in the competitions. “We are working hard on the boys. We have quality stuff but there is a need to facilitate them at every step,” Movahedi said. “We are training six hours a day and for that we will need top quality nutrition and other relevant training facilities. I hope the PSB will take care of our team in future,” the coach said.

It is also in the plans of the PVF to hold camp of the senior side alongside Under-23 in the federal capital. However, a PVF source said that final decision had not yet been taken.

The source said if decided then both the camps would be held separately under Movahedi. Pakistan’s senior team has ahead a number of international commitments this year including Asian Qualifiers for the Challengers Cup, Asian Championship and continental qualifiers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. If finalised national spikers will train at Hamidi Hall which is small as compared to the facility of the Laquat Gymnasium which is not in good condition to train in.