September 19, 2007	Wednesday	Ramazan 06, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: Inter-provincial Under-17 tournaments in 12 different disciplines will be organised for boys and girls across the country over a four-month period starting from November 5.

The schedule of the tournaments for the 2007-08 winter season was finalised at a meeting on Tuesday, chaired by director general of Pakistan Sports Board, Col. (r) Salahuddin and attended by directors of sports from provinces and other regions.

The last of these tournaments will be the boys’ football to be held at Muzaffarabad from April 2-5, 2008, while the schedule will open with judo competition for boys and girls at Muzaffarabad from November 5-7 this year.

Islamabad will host two tournaments of swimming for both boys and girls, and a kabaddi tournament in January and February next year.

The only other city allocated two competitions is Quetta which will be the venue for weightlifting for boys and taekwondo for boys and girls in April and May next year.

The cities which have got one competition each are Multan, which hosts a karate event for boys and girls in November, and Faisalabad which has been allocated the boxing event in March. Hyderabad, will also host boys’ hockey in December while Karachi will host an athletics event for boys and girls in January. Gilgit will host boys volleyball in May and Peshawar a wrestling event in March.

Salahuddin said that only those sports were being included in the schedule which had been identified by the Ministry of Sports as medal fetching ones in international competitions.

Commenting on other proposals to also include baseball, badminton and table tennis in the schedule, the DG, PSB said they could be considered if more funds were available.

The meeting decided not to allow departmental players in these competitions while empowering an age scrutiny committee to check against the inclusion of overage players in the tournaments.

Schedule of the tournaments:

Judo for boys and girls at Lahore from November 5-7, karate for boys and girls at Multan from November 12-14, kabaddi at Islamabad from February 4-6, boxing for boys at Faisalabad from March 4-6, weightlifting at Quetta from November 14-16, taekwondo for boys and girls at Quetta from May 1-3, hockey for boys at Hyderabad from December 24-27, athletics for boys and girls at Karachi from January 14-16, volleyball for boys at Gilgit from May 20-24, swimming for boys and girls at Islamabad from January 1-3, football for boys at Muzaffarabad from April 2-5 and wrestling for boys at Peshawar from March 17-19. —APP