LAHORE, Sept 6: The 12-day long Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) baseball coaching course concluded at the Punjab Sports Board Academy here on Thursday.

Arif Shahzad, who was course director teaching participants, was assisted by Syed Khawar Shah about rules and regulations, Musaddiq Hanif about batting/pitching and Usman Shahzad (fielding).

During the course attended by 28 coaches — 21 males and seven females — executive member of the Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) (women sports promotion) Sumera

Sattar, secretary-general Pakistan Gymnastic Federation (Olympic Movement) Painda A. Malik, Dr Meesaq Rizvi (expert in injuries/doping) and secretary-general Punjab Athletic Association (nutrition) Salman Iqbal Butt delivered lectures.

All coaches, belonging to Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad, Army, Wapda, Police and different schools, colleges and universities passed written test conducted at the end of the course.

Zaiba Manzoor from the Punjab Women Baseball Association was declared the best student.

POA president Lt Gen (rtd) Arif Hasan as chief guest awarded certificates to successful coaches.

Expressing hope that the course would help coaches in enhancing their skills, he assured the Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB) that the POA would also help them conduct an advanced course with approval from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Earlier, PFB president Shaukat Javed thanked the POA for allotting the OCA course to the federation, adding that the national sports federations were faced with problems due to lack of funds.

Highlighting main features of the course, PFB secretary Khawar Shah said that coaches showed interest in enhancing their technical abilities.