KARACHI: Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) president retired Lt Gen Syed Arif Hassan on Tuesday said that the upcoming visit of international qualified coaches to Softball Asia Pakistan Coaching Clinic would promote the sport here.

In a meeting with Softball Federation of Pakistan (SFP) chairperson Tehmina Asif, president Haider Khan and secretary general Asif Azeem, he said that the POA would fully cooperate and support the softball federation for the said mega event.

Arif said the visit of World Baseball Softball Confederation secretary General Dato Low Beng Choo was of utmost importance as it would pave the way for international events being regularly held in the country.

The POA chief said: “Our mission is to flourish the talent of our youth for which our topmost priority is provision of equal opportunities to male and female in sports.”

SFP chairperson Tehmina Asif said that the coaches of departmental, provincial teams and players which performed better at the national level championships would be provided opportunities in the Softball Asia Pakistan Coaching Clinic, while adding all available resources would be utilised to train our coaches and players to make them compete at the international level.

Tehmina said that the federation would try to organise matches with neighbouring countries including Iran, Iraq and Nepal this year.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2019