KARACHI, Nov 24: The provincial secretary for Sports and Youth Affairs, Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, on Monday asked the participants of the weeklong Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) Sports Administration course to take full benefit by acquiring latest knowledge from the experts.

He made these remarks at the opening ceremony of the course which commenced at a local hotel under the aegis of Sindh Olympic Association (SOA) with 25 officials across the province participating.

He hoped that this will go a long way in promoting the sports at the district level in the province and in effectively staging the National Games in Sindh in future.

The official assured to lend his full support to the provincial sports associations in the uplift of healthy activities.

Secretary of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA), Abdul Khaliq Khan, who has specially came here from Lahore, in his speech said that a liaison between government and sports bodies can play a vital role in promoting sports in the country.

Earlier, secretary of the SOA, Ahmed Ali, threw light on the course which has been designed to enhance knowledge of officials.

He thanked the POA for awarding the course to SOA for the second time after 2003.

The POA has deputed Mian Mohammad Rafique as course director while he is being assisted by P.A. Malik.

Eminent speakers will deliver lectures on various topics during the course which concludes on Nov 30.

Participants:

Men: Nisar Ahmad Jagrani (athletics), Abdul Nasir (basketball), Raees Ahmed (body building), Mohammad Younis Pathan (boxing), Dr. Mohammad Siddique (football), Mansoor Baig (Handball), Aamir Siddiqui (hockey), Mohammad Ali (judo), Mohammad Idrees (karate), Tahir Jamil Khanzada (squash), Izharul Haq (swimming), Saleem Ahmed (table tennis), Sarwar Hussain (tennis), Akhtar Khan Durrani (tug-of-war), Rizwan Mustafa Zubairi (tae kwon do), Mohammad Arshad Siddiqui (volleyball), Mohammad Taqui (weightlifting), Abdul Sattar (wrestling) and Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi (wushu).

Women: Mahiya Moin (badminton), Ayesha Qureshi (netball), Amber Sand (gymnastics), Shahnaz Manzoor Khan (tae kwon do), Sana Ali (throwball) and Neelam Khokhar (wushu).