LAHORE, Dec 30: Pakistan Cycling Federation (PCF) is to hire a Canadian coach to train the national team for South Asia Games to be held next year in Sri Lanka.

“We are in the final phase of negotiations with the foreign coach and hopefully everything will be finalised soon,” Idris Haider Khawaja, secretary, PCF said on Friday.

He said the Canadian coach would be engaged on a three-month assignment to help local cyclists prepare on modern lines and get encouraging results in the games in which cycling had been included for the first time.

‘Our cyclists are best in the region and training under the supervision of a top expert will definitely lift their performance to a level to win the Games cycling gold,” he said.

PCF official said the Tour de Pakistan would be held in October in which a number of foreign teams were likely to participate.

“We will be extending invitations to some European countries besides inviting Central Asia States and Asian Countries to make the event competitive,” he said.

Khawaja said PCF wanted to make Tour de Pakistan a trend setting event by ensuring participation from all over the world.

“We will be putting up an attractive prize money in the race and we plan to increase it in future as well,” he said.—APP