Brazilian Marcelo returns as Pakistan’s goalkeeping coach

KARACHI: The return of Shehzad Anwar to the national team fold is seeing Pakistan take the Brazilian route once again.

Having appointed Rodrigo Esteves dos Santos as the physical trainer of the men’s team earlier this month, the Pakistan Football Federation Normalisation Committee announced on Monday the return of Marcelo Costa Schroeder as the goalkeeping coach.

Marcelo previously coached Pakistan’s goalkeepers for a six-month period in 2019 when Shehzad — in his position as PFF technical director — appointed an all-Brazilian coaching team for the national side.

Then, Jose Antonio Nogueira had been named as the head coach while Beto Portella was the trainer.

Shehzad had worked with both of them during his time in Brazil while completing his AFC Pro-Licence coaching certification.

During that time, Pakistan fell in the opening round of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup and the 2023 Asian Cup with the national team having been split due to a tug of war over the control of the PFF, which eventually saw FIFA appoint a Normalisation Committee to oversee matters of the country’s football body.

Shehzad was appointed head coach of the Pakistan team in July, after the NC returned to office and the 15-month suspension on Pakistan was lifted by FIFA.

The NC has been holding an extensive camp to form a national team which will take part in the opening round of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup in October next year.

Pakistan finish with six golds

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Hamza Omar Saeed and Mazhar Abbas dominated their Indian opponents to clinch golds in the Mount Everest Open Taekwondo International Championshipin Nepal on Sunday.

Overall Pakistan bagged six gold, three silver and six bronze medals in the International Championship.

Hamza overwhelmed India’s Gaurav Bhat 11-2, 11-4 in the +87kg Kyorugi final while Mazhar staved off a comeback from Resheb to win the +80kg final 9-7, 4-8, 8-0.

India’s Shivam Sudesh Shetti broke Pakistan’s dominance as he defeated Arbaz Khan 6-5, 7-2 in the -63kg final while Haroon Khan also lost the -58kg decider as Korea’s Tae Joon Park won 9-1, 11-3.

In the female competition, Pakistan had to suffice with a bronze as Indian Sonam Rawal routed Noor Rehman 3-0, 4-0 in the -57kg semi-final.

It meant Pakistan ended with Kyorugi event with three golds, two silver, and as many bronze medals.

In the Poomsae event Pakistan also managed to clinch three gold, one silver and four bronze medals.—APP

Bilal reaches three finals

LAHORE: Bilal Asim has a chance to win three titles after he reached three finals in the Aitchison College Junior National Tennis Championship on Monday.

Bilal will be up against Farman Shakeel in the boys’ under-18 singles and doubles final on Tuesday while he will play Asad Zaman in the under-16 title clash.

Results (semi-finals):

Boys’ under-18 singles): Bilal Asim bt Haider Ali Rizwan 6-1, 6-1; Farman Shakeel bt Abdul Hanan Khan 6-3, 7-5.

Boys’ under-18 doubles: Farman Shakeel/Ali Talha bt Mohammad Zaryab Khan/Salaar Khan 1-6, 6-0, 15-13; Bilal Asim/Ahtesham Humayun by Haider Ali Rizwan/Hussnain Ali Rizwan 7-5, 6-4.

Girls’ under-18 singles: Amna Ali Qayum bt Laiba Iqbal Khan 6-0, 6-0; Zahra Suleman bt Ashtafila Arif 6-2, 6-1.

Boys’ under-16 singles: Bilal Asim bt Ahtesham Humayun 6-2, 6-3; Asad Zaman bt Haider Ali Rizwan 7-5, 6-1.

Boys’ under-14 singles: Abubakar Talha bt Hamza Ali Rizwan 6-3, 5-7, 10-8; Omer Jawad bt Ameer Mazari 6-1,7-5.

Boys under-12 singles: Omer Jawad bt Hamza Ali Rizwan 7-5, 6-2; Abubakar Talha bt Abdur Rehman 6-0, 6-2.

Girls’ under 12 singes: Bismal Zia bt Fajar Fayyaz 4-0, 1-4, 10-2.

Boys & girls’ under-10 singles: Hajra Suhail bt Salaar Khan 4-0, 4-0; Rashid Bachani bt Rashid Ali Bhand 4-0, 4-1.—Sports Reporter

Junior Squash event begins

ISLAMABAD: Sindh’s Adnan Zaman defeated Hassan Shamim on the opening day of Pakistan Squash Federation Junior Squash Circuit number three here at the Mushaf Squash Complex on Monday.

Results (first round):

Boys’ Under-11: Ahmed Naz bt Aziz Ali 3-1, Ahmad Safwan bt Ibrahim Ahmed 3-0, Rayan bt Abdullah 3-0, Azin Ali bt Essam 3-0, Harmas Raja bt Anas Rafeh 11-5 (Retd), Mustafa bt Abdullah 3-0.

Boys’ Under-13: Raja Ali Amir bt Syed M Hussain 3-0, Sohail Adnan beat Danish Sikander 3-0, Ahmed Ali bt Umar Afzal 3-1, Haris Khalil bt Awais Jan 3-0, Hammad Adil bt Mustafa Khan 3-0, Amir Adnan bt Ahmed Nadeem 3-0, Fawad bt Shahnawaz Butt 3-1, Abbas Zaka bt Sufiyan Shahid 3-0.

Boys’ Under-15: M. Hamza bt Raheel 3-0, Ubaidullah bt Saifullah 3-1, Abdullah Arslan bt Arsalan 3-0, Rayyab Mohib bt Hassan Fahim 3-0, Usman Tahir bt Umar Farooq Butt 3-0, Azan Ali bt M. Malik, Mustafa Irfan bt Habib Moazzam 3-0, Abdullah Zaman bt

Ali Ahmed 3-2.

Boys’ Under-17: Ahmed Kamran bt Shahriyar Saleem 3-0, Abdullah Nadeem bt Luqman 3-0, Abdullah Nawaz bt Noor Khan 3-0, M. Umair Arif bt M. Arslan 3-0, Rana Zohaib bt Meer Khwaja 3-0, Adnan Zaman bt Hassan Shamim 3-2, Labib Butt bt Saim Asif 3-0; Boys Under-19: Shera Akbar bt Abdullah 3-0, Azan Khalil bt M. Ahmed 3-1, Anas Ali bt Abubakar 3-0, Mehmood Mehboob bt Umar Arshad 3-0.

Girls’ Under-19: Fajar Hameed bt Zymal 3-0, Zarlish bt Maliha 3-0, Amna bt Mishal 3-0, Luiza Aftab bt Afshan Umar 3-0, Husna bt Ronaq Saleem 3-1.—Sports Reporter

Babar knocked out of Asian 6-Reds

KARACHI: Pakistan suffered a blow when second seed Babar Masih was knocked out from the ongoing Asian 6-Reds Snooker Championship at Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

According to results made available here, Babar went down to UAE’s Abdulr­ahman Saif 3-4 in a fully-stretched battle the scores being 56-0, 20-39, 6-45, 8-46, 85-0, 40-0, 0-50.

This was Babar’s second defeat in as many days in group ‘B’ that deprived him a spot in the last-16. However, he cruised to a 4-1 victory (33-14, 50-28, 36-25, 22-33, 40-8) over Malaysian Hau Boon Meng in his second match of the day.

Babar’s compatriot and seventh-seeded Ahsan Ramzan, however, booked a berth in the knockout round despite losing on Monday. The reigning world champion flost to UAE’s Khalid Kamali 3-4 (56-9, 47-19, 8-45, 0-54, 7-36, 36-16, 10-38).

Ahsan will be up against Malaysian Lim Kok Leong in the pre-quarters on Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2022