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MAKKAH, April 8: Pakistan will be competing in six different disciplines on the opening day of the 1st Islamic Countries Solidarity Games on Saturday.
The games are scheduled to start on Saturday with the formal opening ceremony being held at Makkah late on Friday.
FOOTBALL
In football, Pakistan will meet Morocco, a formidable team of group ‘D’ at the King Fahad Sports City Stadium, Taif at local time 8.35pm.
Pakistan’s chances to qualify for the quarterfinals increased after one of the favourites Kuwait pulled out. Pakistan with Morocco and Malaysia are the three teams left in the pool.
“Yes, Kuwait’s pull out provides us with a chance to reach the quarterfinals and the match against Morocco will give us maximum practice before meeting Malaysia in the crucial match,” coach Tariq Lutfi said.
“Yes, Morocco is a strong side but I think we have chances of victory against Malaysia as the boys are well prepared,” he said.
The team has 11 internationals who were members of the 9th SAF gold medal team.
They are Muhammad Shahzad, who had also represented the country in 14th Asian Games-2002, Naveed Akram, Ejaz Ahmed, Mehmood Khan, Zahid Hameed, Muhammad Zahid, Atiqur Rehman, Imran Niazi, Muhammad Essa, Farooq Shah and Abdul Aziz.
Those who are representing the senior team for the first time are Muhammad Imran, Aurangzeb, Imran Hussain and Shahid Ahmad.
BASKETBALL
Pakistan will take on Tunis at the Prince Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz Sports City Madinah at local time 7.30 in group ‘D’ match. Pakistan and Tunisia, with Tajikistan, Libya and Algeria are in the same group. Uganda had withdrawn.
Pakistan will be playing an international event after more than a decade and surprisingly all the 11 players selected in the team will be making their international debut.
HANDBALL
Led by Naseer Ahmed, the Pakistan handball team will face Saudi Arabia in the competition at the Sports Hall al-Shara’ea, Makkah at 6pm (local time).
Besides Naseer, the other players who have had international exposure are Muhammad Tariq and Muhammad Nadeem. Rashad Ali and Rizwan Tauheed had represented the country at the junior level.
Morocco is the third team in group ‘A’ with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia after Lebanon had withdrawn.
Cameroon and Uganda had also withdrawn from pool ‘C’. To make adjustment, the organizers brought Bahrain from group ‘B’ to ‘C’ making the first three groups a three-team formation each.
SWIMMING
Pakistan has fielded an eight-member team in swimming competitions which are being held at the GPYW pool in Jeddah.
Among them five swimmers have won medals in the 9th SAF Games held at Islamabad last year.
They are Mahboob Ali (won two silver and a bronze medal), Adil Baig (silver), Muhammad Faiz (bronze), Imdad Ali (bronze) and Ali Gul (bronze).
A total of twenty countries are competing in the event.
On the first day the competition will be held in 50 metres breaststroke, 1500 metres freestyle, 50 metres butterfly and 4x200m freestyle.
Coach Bashir Ahmed said that the boys had improved their timings but as he had no idea about the strength of others he would not make any predictions.
However, he said the field was as open for Pakistani swimmers as for others and he was expecting a good contest from three or four other countries.
TABLE TENNIS
Twenty-three countries are taking part in the table tennis event being held in Taif.
Pakistan has entered a four members team with seasoned campaigner Farjad Saif as leader.
Kashif Razzak is another experienced player and the duo could earn medals for the country.
In fact Pakistan had picked a five-member team but later reduced to four, when a key player Faisal Ali failed to make the trip on medical grounds.
The other players are Syed Saleem Abbas Kazmi and Yasir Iqbal Bhatti.
KARATE
Thirty-three countries have sent entries for karate event being held at Ohod Club Sports Hall Madinah.
Pakistan is competing with eight players.
They are Ghulam Ali, Farman Ahmad, Khalid Noor, Agha Muhammad, Humayun Mustafa, Sudager Masih, Abdul Raziq and Shaukat Ali.
The Pakistan Karate Federation has announced cash awards Rs 100,000 for the gold medal winners.
Pakistan is also taking part in the taekwondo, athletics, volleyball and tennis competitions which will begin later.
