MINGORA: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regional badminton training camp commenced at the Badminton Hall in Makan Bagh Swat on Tuesday.

The ten-day training camp has been organized by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Badminton Association in collaboration with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sports Directorate. Over 20 Junior and senior players from across the district are participating in the event.

Badminton International Level-1 Coach Kashif Nawaz is conducting the training to polish the talent up to the international standard.

KP Badminton Association president Zafar Ali Kaka, who is supervising the event, said that the camp in Swat is part of the training campaign in KP province to unearth and groom sporting talent. “This is the second regional camp after the one held at Bannu. We aim to identify the badminton talent in the province and polish them up to international standards,” he told Dawn, adding that he was hopeful to bring out some best players of international level.

The participating players in the camp lauded the training and said they are learning new skills and techniques. “The training camp is useful, not only for badminton techniques but also for attaining physical fitness,” said Faisal Yousafzai, an emerging badminton player.

Badminton is being played in different areas of Swat where people have passion for the game but there is only one badminton hall in the entire district which is obviously not adequate arrangement for all the players in the region.

“We were hopeful to have more badminton facilities in Swat as this government claimed to construct more grounds, but at this moment we see no new ground or sports complex being constructed by the PTI government which is disappointing,” said Shahid Khan, another badminton player who belongs to Charbagh area.

“We have been playing badminton on our own techniques which are completely wrong. For the first time are being trained on international techniques which should not be stopped but should go on regularly,” said Ziaullah Khan a badminton player.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2016