KARACHI: Junior international Usmar Hassan fought tooth and nail for almost an hour, 58 minutes to be precise, to register a magnificent victory over third seed Arslan Hassan in a gruelling five-game duel to land the under-17 title in the Champion Hunt Initiative Programme for Squash (CHIPS) at the PN Roshan Khan-Jahangir Khan squash complex on Thursday.

Fresh from his triumph against top seed Mehran Javed in the semi-final on Wednesday, unseeded Usmar, recovered from 1-2 down to turn the tide in his favour to by emerging 3-2 victorious to give Punjab one of the three titles that were at stake. He eaned handsome applause the moment he won the match 11-7, 10-12, 10-12, 13-11, 11-3.

Teenagers Abbas Zeb and Zeeshan Malik did PAF proud while landing the under-15 and under-13 titles respectively.

Like Usmar, top seed Abbas was stretched to limits by second seed Zeeshan Gul before coasting to 2-11, 11-4, 11-6, 9-11, 13-11 victory in the final that lasted 46-minutes.

Similarly, top seed Zeeshan lived up to his billing by getting the better of second seed Uzair Shaukat 11-4, 6-11, 11-4, 11-7 in 31-minutes to annex the under-13 crown.

The three winners received purse of Rs10,000 apiece while the runners-up were awarded Rs7,000 each by the chief guest squash legend Jahangir Khan at the presentation that followed the final. The event carried total purse of Rs1,50,000 with losing semi-finalists, quarter-finalists and first round losers getting their share in all the three categories.

The ceremony was also attended among others by sponsors Kazim Anwar of the ADHA Trust (KAAT), Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) secretary Group Capt Amir Nawaz, Chips director Sayeed Khan, organising committee chairman Riaz Ahmed Siddiqui, Sindh Squash Association president Tahir Khanzada, tournament director Rashid Ahmed, tournament secretary Omar Bangash and Ms Farha Syed.

“Squash is a passion of Kazim Anwar whose vision is to produce a world champion in three to five years,” director of the programme Sayeed Khan told Dawn.

He said under the programme, 10 to15 budding players will be shortlisted in the next phase and will be provided complete boarding and lodging besides coaching and competition.

Sayeed, an old hand of the game, said nutritionist, physiologist, physical trainer and coach will be hired for better grooming of the selected players.

He sounded optimistic that results will be visible in the near future after the next phase comes into action.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play