ISLAMABAD: Over two-dozen international squash players will be seen in action during the international squash men’s and women’s championships being held here at the Mushaf Squash Complex from Dec 15-19.

The Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) in collaboration with Pakistan Air Force & Serena Hotels will organize the event titled ‘Serena Hotels-Huawei Pakistan.’

Senior Vice President of Pakistan Squash Federation, Air Vice Marshal Aamir Masood, Secretary PSF Tahir Sultan, Squash Legend Qamar Zaman, Hussain Odhwani from Serena while addressing a press conference here on Tuesday shared the details of the event.

According to Secretary PSF, the men’s event carries $20,000 and womens event $12,000 in prize money. He said that besides Pakistan, a large number of international players from Austria, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, Jordon, Malaysia, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the US have confirmed their participation.

Egypt’s Youssef Ibrahim is top seed followed by Muhammad Elsherbini from Egypt, Tayyab Aslam from Pakistan, Mazen Gamal from Egypt, Asim Khan form Pakistan. Whereas, Pakistan’s Amaad Fareed is 10th seed in the event. Whereas, for women event, Tsz Wing Tong from Hongkong is top seed and Sabrina Sobhy is second seed followed by Farida Mohaamed from Egypt.

Later on, while speaking to Dawn, Secretary PSF said that international events in Pakistan has been providing chance to local players to excel. To a query about chances of Tayyab Aslam in the event, who just won Gold Medal in South Asian Games, he said that Tayyab’s gold would be a booster for his and other Pakistani players in this event.

“But winning medals at South Asian level is not our target, we are focusing to win medals at world level,” he said and added that Pakistani players during the last few years, has made significant progress.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2019