June 06, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 01, 1429

KARACHI, June 5: After almost quarter of a century, an international table tennis activity will be taking place in the port city when Pakistan play hosts to South Asian Juniors and Cadet Table Tennis Championships at the air-conditioned Habib Public School gymnasium from July 9 to 11.

Prior to the formation of South Asian Games Federation, Pakistan played host to the Pentangular Cup in the city way back in 1982. Though Pakistan hosted the SAF Games twice at Islamabad which included ping pong as one of the disciplines, Karachi remained neglected as an international venue.

“Four foreign countries - Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka - have so far confirmed their participation while confirmation from Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives is awaited,” the President of the Pakistan Table Tennis Federation (PTTF), S. M. Sibtain, said on Thursday.

According to him, 10 gold medals will be at stake in the boys and girls categories during the three-day spectacle.

The events to take place in the two categories are juniors’ team event, juniors’ singles, juniors’ doubles, cadet team event and cadet singles.

The event will also serve as qualifiers for the Asian Juniors’ and Cadet Table Tennis championships which take place at Singapore from July 23 to 27.

Top two teams of the Karachi contest will be eligible to travel to Singapore.

Meanwhile, the PTTF president visited the venue on Thursday and held a detailed meeting with the school’s principal, Qazi M. Saleem. Director Sports of the school, Shabih Abbas was also present.

This will be first international sporting event at the institution’s international standard gymnasium which was commissioned in Nov 2006.