LAHORE, June 24: The National hockey camp being held in final preparation for the Beijing Olympics will commence here at the mini practice pitch of the National Hockey Stadium from June 30.

“In all 33 players will be attending the camp, which will focus mainly on giving the final touch to the team’s preparations for the grand hockey tournament in China,” said the team’s coach, former Olympian Naveed Alam on Tuesday.

He said the final team will be decided after a two-phased trials programme to thoroughly assess the players’ potential as well as the need of the team.

“We will be holding initial trials somewhere in the first week of July followed by the final trials on July 22 to name our 16-member team,” he added.

The former fullback said the aim of holding this camp in hot weather is to have the team adapt to Beijing’s weather conditions that is expected to be as warm in August at the time of the Olympics.

It was also disclosed that some junior players appearing in the Junior Asia Cup will also be included in the final trials besides attending the camp.

“After Europe’s tour where we won a 4-nation tournament to warp up our trip on a morale boosting note, we have almost finalised our final playing side for the Olympics but there are still two to three places needed to be filled and we hope to see close competition for these slots, which is also why we invited junior players in the camp,” he said.

The names of the camp probables will be announced shortly by the Pakistan Hockey Federation after approval by their selection committee and President, Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali.

According to the coach, it is time to concentrate on overcoming the team’s grey areas including our forwards’ missed actions in crunch situations along with their silly mistakes in defence and attack.—APP