PESHAWAR
Prime Minister Youth Talent Hunt Men Badminton Championship got under way in a colourful opening ceremony held under the aegis of the Directorate of Sports University of Swabi at Abdul Wali Khan Sports Complex on Wednesday.
Vice Chancellor University of Swabi Professor Dr. Nasir Jamal, Director General Sports Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Captain (Retd) Khalid Mahmood, Assistant Commissioner Charsadda Miss Alveena Faiz, Chief Referee Pakistan Badminton Federation Muhammad Amjad Khan, international coaches Nadeem Khan and Hayat Ullah, District Sports Officer Charsadda Muhammad Imran, Organizing Secretary and former international gold medalist of the South Asian Games in Javelin throw Iltaf Hussain, players from all five Regions host Peshawar, Bannu, Swat, Mardan, and Hazara, officials and small number of spectators were also present.
The colourful ceremony was started with the recitation from Holy Quran by Qari Muhammad Umar, followed by the National Anthem. Speaking on this occasion Director General Sports Khyber Pakhtunkhwa appreciated the players of badminton, squash, wrestling, boxing, hockey, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, football, swimming, cricket, judo, taekwondo of being among the top national ranking and given some excellent performance at the national and international levels. He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has international standard playing facilities like the one in Abdul Wali Khan Sports Complex but out players lacking hard work to reach and should get some credential in the international events.
He said things in his mind to hire service of international coaches for the players of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the above-mentioned games so that the performance of the players could be brought to a height matching the international teams from other countries during the South Asian Games, Asian Games and Olympic.
He was of the view that work should be needed at the grassroots level for searching out talent and new faces and that talent hunt through open trials could be provided facilities of playing, diet, physical endurance under qualified coaches and above all provided them best equipment for playing.
Vice Chancellor University of Swabi Prof. Dr. Nasir Jamal lauded HEC for reposing confidence in University of Swabi and granted Men Badminton to organize and involve players from all the five regions across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said a team among them could be selected from the ongoing PM Talent Hunt Men Provincial League Badminton by the selection committee to represent KP in the National League. Hopefully a strong and good team out of the Provincial League would be selected by giving opportunities to the talented players on merit and merits only.
Earlier, strong title contender Peshawar Region faced tough resistance against a strong Swat Region team in the opening match decided in a 3-2 battle. Peshawar beat Swat 3-2. In the first singles Hasnain of Swat beat Daniyal Shehzad of Peshawar by 2-0, the score was 21-19 and 21-16, in the doubles, Malik Faraz and Muhammad Zaid (Peshawar) beat Yasir and Sajjad (Swat) by 21-19, 23-21 and 21-18. In the second singles Mehaeel Khan (Peshawar) beat Shahid Ali (swat) by 2-0, the score was 21-19, 21-17, in the second doubles Hasnain and Shahid Ali (Swat) beat Daniyal and Umar (Peshawar) by 21-17, 22-24 and 21-19, in the last singles Muhammad Zain, the top national ranking player, defeated Atif Khan (Swat by 21-7, 15-21 and 21-19.
In the second match Mardan beat Hazara by 3-0, in the first singles Bilal (Mardan) beat Sami Hasnain (Hazara) by 2-0, the score was 21-18 and 21-16, in the doubles Bilal and Khalfan (Mardan) beat Hamza and Ahmad (Hazara) by 2-0, the score was 21-17, 21-16, in the second singles Faiz of Mardan beat Abdur Rehman of Hazara by 2-0, the score was 21-15 and 21-19.
In the third match, Bannu region defeated Hazara by 3-0, in the first singles Taimoor (Bannu) beat Ahmad (Hazara) by 2-0, the score was 21-19, 21-18, in doubles Hamza and Fahad (Bannu) beat Sami Ullah and Abdur Rehman (Hazara) by 2-0, the score was 21-16 and 21-17 in the second singles Afnan Bannu beat Sani Hazara by 2-0 (21-19 and 21-16).
