LAHORE: Within 24 hours, the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has shifted the venue for the national training camp, being staged for the Youth Olympics qualifying round, from Islamabad to Karachi.

On Tuesday, the PHF announced Islamabad’s Naseer Bunda Stadium as the venue for the camp. However on Wednesday, the PHF announced that the said camp was being shifted to the Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium in Karachi.

As the PHF has also planned to hold a five-a-side tournament at the newly-built Shahnaz Sheikh Academy in Rawalpindi where the probables of the camp had to play, but now the federation has claimed that only accommodation (for the players) was available in Islamabad, while the camp was to be held at Rawalpindi’s Shahnaz Sheikh Academy.

“The change [in venue for the camp] has been necessitated due to the travelling distance involved between players’ accommodation in Islamabad and the training venue, Shahnaz Sheikh Hockey Stadium in Rawalpindi,” read a PHF press release issued here on Wednesday.

“Now, the players would reside and train at the same place, Karachi’s Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium. The rooms here have been recently renovated and have good air-conditioning facilities as well.

“The probables have been directed to report to Kamran Ashraf, the coach of the national junior team, at the Abdul Sattar Edhi Hockey Stadium by the afternoon of April 1,” added the press release.

The camp is being held for the qualifying round of the 2018 Youth Olympics, being held in Bangkok from April 25 to 29, while the main tournament will be staged in Argentina in October.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2018