National hockey camp from tomorrow

Published July 19, 2005

ISLAMABAD, July 18: The national hockey training camp in preparation for next month’s twin tournaments in Europe will get under way at Pakistan Sports Complex from Wednesday. Besides the seniors, the camp will also be attended by the juniors who donned Pakistan colour in the youth World Cup which concluded at Rotterdam (Holland) on July 10 with the green-shirts finishing seventh and Argentina lifting the trophy.

The selected team, to be finalised in the first week of next month, will feature in back-to-back tournaments in Europe.

The Augt 12-14 Hamburg Masters will also include hosts Germany, Holland and Australia alongside Pakistan.

These four teams will be joined by another four nations — India, South Korea, Argentina and Spain — in the 8-nation tournament to be held at Amstelveen (Holland) from Aug 14 to 21.

Former Olympian Asif Bajwa will head the team of coaches appointed by Pakistan Hockey Federation for the national training camp at Nasir Bunda Stadium — his former teammates Rana Mujahid and Shehbaz Jr. plus veteran international Abdur Rauf to assist him.

Ex-Pakistan inside left Saeed Khan will be the camp commandant. Alongwith the coaches, Saeed will make the trip to Europe as manager of the team.

The first phase of the training (July 1-12) was organised at Army Stadium in Rawalpindi.—APP