11 July 2004	Sunday	22 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, July 10: A top official of Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) was confident of Pakistan successfully defending world men's junior squash title to be played at the Mushaf Mir Squash Complex in Islamabad from Aug 17 to 28.

The optimism was expressed by Sajid Waheed, secretary PSF while talking to reporters on Saturday.

He believed that the boys were preparing for the event for the last two years and claimed the selected players for the championship were in quite good shape and physically fit.

He said that Pakistan clinched the title in the year 2000 after one year preparation and now they were comparatively better prepared than the previous championship.

Secretary PSF said that all the four boys were talented and performed well in the recent season.

Pakistan will be defending world junior champions which they won defeating England 3-0 in the final of the 2002 edition of the biennial World Junior Championships held in the South Indian city of Chennai.

Pakistanis were second seed behind England in Chennai but are likely to be the top seeds this time because of the higher rankings of their junior players at the international level.

England, who have already announced their four-member team for the c hampionships will most likely be the second seeds. The seedings will be decided once the draw of the 24-nation championship is finalised by the World Squash Federation (WSF) within the next few weeks.

Pakistan have been preparing for the World Junior Championships since early this year as their top junior players are gearing up for both the men's team and individual titles.

This year PSF is hoping that one of their players particularly Farhan Mahboob will go on to claim the individual crown. Former world No. 1 Jansher Khan was the last Pakistani to claim the world junior crown when he defeated Australia's Rodney Eyles in Brisbane (Australia) in 1986.

Jansher's nephew Farhan Mahboob, the current Asian junior champion, is one of the favourites to win back the crown for Pakistan in Islamabad this summer.

But first Farhan will have to compete in the national trials for the World Championships to be held next month. The PSF is likely to invite the top ten players for the trials to be held under the supervision of head national coach Jamshed Gul.

PSF announced four member team for the event including Farhan Mehboob, Khalid Atlas, Yasir Butt and Basit Ashfaque while Shahnawaz and Amir Atlas will play in individual events. -PPI