March 15, 2006	Wednesday	Safar 14, 1427

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KARACHI, March 14: The second batch comprising 14 sailors and three officials will fly to Qatar on Wednesday morning to feature in the biennial 12th Asian Sailing Championship which begins there from Thursday.

Another four-member team will also leave Wednesday morning by a separate flight. They include Xerxes Avari, Rafiq Mehboob (470 class) Ian David (foreign coach) and Noor Mohammad (boatman).

A four-member Match Racing team which includes Shehryar Arshad, Riaz Khan, Ahsan Naqvi and Iqbal Azeem had already left for Qatar on March 12.

Despite omission of Pakistan’s favourite Enterprise class from the competition for the first time, officials of the Pakistan Sailing Federation (PSAF) are hoping for good results.

‘We are going with a strong team and hopefully will return with good results,’ PSAF secretary, Capt (retd) S. V. Hasan, said on the eve of team’s departure.

Pakistan bagged two silver and a bronze at the last competition held at Bombay.

Responding to a question, the PSAF official said Pakistan would raise the issue of including Enterprise class at this year’s Asian Games. The item has been put on agenda of the Asian Sailing Federation (ASAF) meeting which takes place on March 24, he said.

Singapore’s suggestion of making ASAF permanent headquarter in their country will also come up for discussion.

The squad:

(Optimist): Abdur Rehman Bin Nasir Rao, Waleed Tobeh, Ghazal Mir Masood, Maria Sehr; (Laser 4.7): Sabahatullah Babur, Ujala Mir Masood; (Laser Standard): Mohammad Yousuf, Ashfaq Iqbal; (Laser Radial): Mamoon Sadiq, Zahid Rauf; (Mistral): Mohammad Tanveer, Khan Dad, Essa Khan and Aamir Nawaz.

Officials: Capt. (retd) S. V. Hasan, Tariq Waheed and Mir Masood.