World Youth Scrabble Championship: Pakistan youngsters bag U10, U12 and U14 titles

Monis, Imaad and Hasham impress while highly-rated Abdullah disappoints

KARACHI: Pakistan’s scrabble contingent did the nation proud as Monis Khan, Imaad Ali and Hasham Hadi bagged U10, U12 and U14 titles respectively at the 2016 World Youth Scrabble Championship (WYSC) in Lille, France.

Pakistan also finished as the second best team behind Sri Lanka in the tournament — the second time in three years they have concluded the event as runners-up — with five of the players ending up among the top 20.



UAE’s Sanchit Kapoor won the premier U18event with 20 wins in 24 rounds as Pakistan’s highly rated player Abdullah Abbasi failed to better or even repeat his previous year’s feat of finishing second.

“We’re disappointed with Abdullah’s result but proud of the great performances by Monis, Imaad and Hasham,” Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) Youth Director Tariq Pervez told The Express Tribune. “These three will definitely have long WYSC careers, and will hopefully go beyond in the seniors categories in the future.”

Hasham’s achievement led to his automatic qualification for the World Scrabble Championship, which is scheduled to begin today.



Meanwhile, Shoaib Sanaullah won the award for the highest score — 158 — in a single move with the word BASCINET and national champion Waseem Khatri won the side tournament for the seniors with 13 wins out of 17 rounds.

Pervez added that due to Pakistan’s performance at the WYSC, it is likely that the country will get a chance to host the international tournament soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2016.

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