National Volleyball Championship from today

KARACHI: The National Volleyball Championship will begin at Lahore on Monday (today). As many as 16 outfits will be taking part in the event which will last till April 21. These units have been divided into four groups. After the preliminaries, eight leading sides will feature in the quarter-finals league. From there, four top sides will advance to the semi-finals.

WAPDA, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit-Baltistan and Railways form Group A. Group B consists of Navy, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad and Higher Education Commission (HEC). Army have been clubbed in Group C with Police, FATA and Balochistan.

Pakistan Air Force (PAF), Pakistan Ordnance Factories, Sindh and Punjab constitute Group D. On Monday (today), in the preliminaries, AJK will face Gilgit-Baltistan, KP will lock horns with Islamabad, WAPDA meet Railways, PAF will be pitted against Sindh, Navy will take on HEC, Army will face Police, Punjab will meet POF and FATA will challenge Balochistan.

On Sunday, Pakistan Volleyball Federation’s (PVF) chairman Chaudhry Yaqoob briefed media about the event at the Olympic House, Lahore. "We warmly welcome all main sponsors of the event and thank Trans Group and Blitz for supporting the game," Yaqoob said. "We can assure that the present sponsors and the future sponsors of volleyball will be happy in their partnership with PVF as volleyball is a popular sport in every nook and corner of the country," he said.

Volleyball is one of the three largest sports of the world with football and basketball. Its world governing body (FIVB) has 220 countries affiliated with it, he said. He said Pakistan had a respectable standing in international circuit. In men’s under-23, Pakistan are 21st in the world and in seniors category Pakistan are 50th out of 220 nations.

"In Asian Games in Indonesia last year, Pakistan defeated strong China and India besides a few others. We have very good talent right now and InshaAllah in the next three years not only Pakistan will be on the victory stand in Asia but also will be in a good position in the world," Yaqoob said. Also present on the occasion were Sharjeel Hasan, NDURE marketing head, Rao Omar Hashim Khan, Group Director Trans Sports Group, and PVF secretary Shah Naeem Zafar.