PESHAWAR
Hailing from a remote village of District Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan’s top ping pong player Fahad Khawjah marked his way to the top honor of winning three consecutive matches in the ongoing Men single event of Table Tennis in the Commonwealth Games-2022 in Birmingham, United Kingdom on Thursday.
Talking to APP on phone, the jubilant Fahad Khawjah, country’s top Table Tennis player, said that he is in Birmingham, the host City of the United Kingdom (UK), representing Pakistan in the Table Tennis singles of the ongoing Commonwealth Games-2022.
Surprisingly, his younger brother, Ummam Khawjah, who is currently ranked 2nd in Pakistan, missed the Games because of not being granted airfare by the concerned quarters but Ummam has his name in the Pakistan team list for the Games and even the Games management issued accreditation.
In the men’s single table tennis competition of the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, UK, Pakistan’s international table tennis player Fahad Khawaja has performed well in the three preliminary matches and won all three matches with a clear advantage, thus he is among 72 countries, has qualified for the top 32 draw.
In the final group match, Fahad Khawaja defeated Darren Douglas of Trinidad and Tobago. Fahad Khawaja won all three matches of Group No. 15 and qualified for the round of 32.
Fahad Khawaja defeated Guyana’s Christopher Franklin 4-0 in the first match of Group 15, while in the second match he beat Bangladesh’s Mohtasin Ahmed 4-1. Fahad Khawaja’s next very important match is against England’s World No. 74 Paul Drinkhall, which will be played on Friday at Charbakar 4.45 pm Pakistan time.
It should be remembered that Fahad Khawaja’s younger brother Pakistan No. 2 was also accredited for the Commonwealth Games, but not sponsored. Due to refusal of the airfare Ummam Khawaja missed the prestigious Games. In the recently held National Table Tennis Championship both Fahad and Ummam reached the final and Fahad took the Championship trophy while Ummam got the runners-up trophy as both are playing for Pakistan Wapda.
The Pakistan table tennis team could not participate in double competitions. Although 2 athletes went to the 2018 Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast, Australia earlier on.
If given a chance to both the players from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to participate in the Commonwealth Games 2022 Birmingham, it would have added a new chapter in the history of Pakistan Table Tennis for this province.
For this reason, Fahad Khawaja is participating only in single events instead of Team events for Pakistan. Table tennis is being treated like a step-mother in Pakistan. When contacted a dejected Ummam Khawjah, who missed the Commonwealth Games-2022 Birmingham, said that he would do his more hard work and Insha Allah in future he would represent Pakistan.
The talented 17-year-old Ummam Khawjah was also honored by the International Table Tennis Federation who invited him to Doha, Qatar on a special flight and was given the title of “The Pearl of Asia” when he was just 12-year-old. He was the only Pakistani among all countries of the world who was honored due to excellent Game and reaching the top 7 points out of the total 16 players in May, 2016.
