LAHORE, Sept 16: The Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) has decided to start national Level-I coaching courses for men and women with the first being held at the National Sports Training and Coaching Centre from Sept 19 to Oct 1.

AFP secretary, Muhammad Khalid Mahmood, said that the same courses would also be held in Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad this year.

He said that the courses were being held to train and make available a good number of coaches for appointments in schools, colleges, tehsil and district levels to groom talent at the grassroots level.

Mr Khalid said that coaches who qualified from Level-I would be eligible to participate in the Level-II coaching course and subsequently in the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) Level-I course.

Besides all affiliated units of the federation, Punjab Education Department, Sports Board of Punjab and both Government Physical Education, Lahore for men and women had been advised to send their coaches for the course, he said.

The candidates below 40 years will be selected keeping in view their qualifications, sports achievements, coaching experience and fitness test.

The fitness test will be held at the Wapda Sports Complex on Saturday in the following events:

50m Sprint (men and women), pull-ups for men and push-ups for women, Standing Jump (men and women), 1500m (men) and 800m (women).

Course director is Muhammad Arshad Ramzan while his assistants are Qamar Zaman, Tariq Mehmood Sidhu and Nasrullah.