PESHAWAR
Bannu, Mardan and Peshawar Regions recorded victories against their respective rivals in the ongoing Pakistan Army Inter-Region Boys Volleyball Championship being played here at the indoor hall of the Pakistan Coaching Center Peshawar on Thursday.
Col. Adeel of the Engineering Corps and Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Volleyball Association Khalid Waqar Chamkani graced the occasion as guests and before the start of the matches the players of all the teams were introduced to them. Khalid Waqar Chamkani, who is also remained as Assistant Coach of the Pakistan National team, appreciated Pakistan Army and Directorate General Sports Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for jointly supporting the Pakistan Army Boys Volleyball Talent Hunt wherein eight different teams including one team each from the seven Regions including Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Kohat, Mardan, Hazara, Malakand, and Peshawar and one team from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Volleyball Academy are taking part in the Championship being played on Round Robin League wherein each of the team would play three matches.
All the eight teams have been divided in two groups and the top two teams from each group would qualify for the semi-finals. He said it is good initiative wherein Pakistan Army is providing all financial support to Directorate General Sports Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for holding Talent Hunt League. Among the league, three teams including Under-16, Under-18 and Under-21 would be short-listed and would be trained and coach for longer durations.
The players would not only providing training and coaching under qualified coaches but the players would get month stipends of Rs. 50,000, 20,000 and Rs. 15000 per month.
Khalid Waqar said that there is no dearth of talent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in the Junior team of 12 players 11 are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including the captain and similarly in the 12 members teams of the Senior, 11 players are hailing from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa including the camp Aimal Khan, hailing from Swat. With this initiative good players would come up at National Junior and National Senior teams.
Earlier, in the first match Bannu defeated Kohat in straight sets 3-0, the score was 25-21, 25-23 and 25-23. Kohat responded well but overall Bannu dominated the proceedings and did not allow Kohat team to strike back. For Bannu Wajid, Saud Khan, Shakeel Khan, Irfan Ullah played well and for Kohat, Atif, Sabz Ali, Rehan, Javed and Tariq Ullah played well.
In the second match Peshawar defeated Malakand by 25-21, 25-20 and 25-23 in another one-sided match. For Peshawar international Tufail, Azad, Nigar, Awais Seniior played well and for Malakand Afzal, Farhan, Luqman and Talha and Haris played well. In the other matches Mardan recorded victory against Dera Ismail Khan in straight sets, the score was 25-23, 29-27 and 25-21. Both Mardan and Dera Ismail Khan played well during the match, specially in the second sets wherein they were stretched to 29-27 before leveling the score on couple of occasions.
