JAKARTA: Pakistan hockey team captain Mohammad Rizwan Senior will lead national contingent as the flag-bearer at the Asian Games opening ceremony which will be held at the Glora Bung Carno Stadium here on Saturday.

Left-in Rizwan Senior has been part of the national team since 2011 and has scored 39 international goals. He was part of the national team which won the gold medal in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzou, China as well as the as the team which bagged silver medal in the Asian Games held in the Korean city of Incheon in 2014.

According to information received, the head of the Indonesia’s Asian Games Organising Committee, Erick Thohir will be the chief guest at the opening ceremony on Saturday.

Meanwhile, President Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) Gen (r) Arif Hasan met with Pakistan hockey team players, manager Hasan Sardar and Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans here in the athletes’ village on Friday and expressed confidence about their good show in the Games.

“Our hockey team has shown marked improvement in the recent months and hopefully will do well at the mega event here,” said Arif.

Manager Hasan, a former Olympian and hockey legend, also informed the POA chief that the players are training hard for the matches and defeated Japan in the practice match the other day which has boosted their morale.

“We will do our best to give some good news to the nation Inshallah,” he added.

Pakistan’s Chef de Mission Aqil Shah, POA secretary general Khalid Mahmood and POA vice president Chaudhry Yaqoob were also present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2018