Young Pakistani quartet out to tame older opponents

Team gunning for gold medal despite lacking experience

KARACHI: Pakistan will begin their campaign at the 18th Asian Junior Team Squash U19 Championship against Japan in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

Seeded fourth, the national team — comprised of Abbas Zeb, Abdul Malik, Mehran Jawed and Mansoor Zaman Junior — shares Group A with the likes of top seed India, Japan, Korea and Macau, China.

The team bagged a silver medal in the championship's last edition, hence, the Pakistan Squash Federation (PSF) is hoping that the current group, coached by Amjad Khan, will go a step higher and bag the coveted gold medal.

“We are hoping to go all the way this time. Our toughest challenge will come from India, Hong Kong and Malaysia as they have older players than ours and also are more experienced," PSF secretary Group Captain Aamir Nawaz told The Express Tribune. "We decided to send a young team (all four team members are between the ages of 15 and 17) this time around as these players have the potential and capability of winning the event.”

Nawaz further revealed that the said players are students of Pakistan Squash Federation National Academy and have been training there for over a year.

“We’ve trained them rigorously and we have tried to give them international exposure so that they can perform to their best at this event,” said Nawaz. “Zeb and Malik are still in school, but the other two have decided to make a career out of squash."

Pakistan will need to finish in the top two of the group stage to qualify for the semi-finals.