The three days Seminar organized by the PHF

Lahore – Pakistan, Dec 26, 2013: The three days Seminar organized by the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) started at the National Hockey Stadium here on Thursday. The purpose of the seminar is aimed to identifying the causes of recent shortcomings which are witnessed in the game of hockey in recent past.

FIH Grade 1 High Performance Coach and former Olympians Tahir Zaman, FIH Coaches Khawaja Junaid and FIH Coach Col. (Retd) Nadeem Ahmed Bhatti conducted the seminar. They emphasized upon making a national strategy which should include the coaching parameters, development parameters at the club and grassroots levels, suggest ways to improve the domestic infrastructure in events and competitions, and discuss various requirements of infrastructure and technical equipment, sponsorship and media related affairs.

On the opening day PHF Secretary Rana Mujahid had a productive interaction with the participants of the seminar which included coaches associated with the national and senior junior teams, departments, academies, provincial, district and club associations. Former Olympians Nadeem ND, Mudassar Ali, Adnan Ashraf, Salim Khalid, Rehan Butt also participated in the seminar.

In a statement Rana Mujahid said that the PHF intends to make a consensus for formulating short term and long term plans to uplift the national sport. He added that the PHF also wanted that their coaching, umpiring and technical officials may come under a proper accreditation system with a certain education and qualification in hockey.

Former Olympian Mohammed Akhlaq, Kamran Ashraf, Shahid Ali Khan, Mohamed Irfan, Mohammed Sarwar and others also attended the seminar.

Port Qasim Authority, Army and NBP have won their matches in the ongoing 60th NBP National Hockey Championship at the Johar Town Hockey Stadium here on Thursday.

The first match of the day turned out to be a one side affair as Port Qasim outclassed Police 3-0. Police which had beaten Higher Education Commission 7-3 in their last match miserably failed to repeat their performance and missed at least three chances to score the goal. Even they failed to convert any of the two penalty corners they got in the match. Port Qasim opened their account in the 30th minute through a field goal by their Center Forward Owais-ur-Rehman who dodged both defenders to hit the ball through the net. At interval the Port Qasim was leading with 1-0.

They doubled their lead in the 53rd minute when Right Out Javed Ali intercepted a hit near the 25 yards area and neatly hit the ball passed through the goalkeeper. Policemen launched a counter attack soon after conceding two goals but the Port Qasim goalkeeper thwarted their attempt and saved a possible goal. In the 61st minute Full Back Sohail scored the third goal to register a comfortable victory for the Port Qasim.

The Navy men were beaten by the Army men in the second match of the day. Both teams displayed aggressive stick work and made several inroads into each other’s areas. The Lady luck didn’t favour the sailors who despite of their excellent performance in the middle couldn’t score a goal. They got four penalty corners and their full backs were also on target but the Lady luck didn’t favour them as the Army goal keeper was always alert to frustrate their attacks.

Army who relied mostly on short passes and were immensely benefited also scored the first goal in the 6th minute of the match when their captain Right out Mohammed Safeer pushed the ball into the net. Their strategy benefit them again in the 13th minute when Full Back Imran scored the second goal. Safeer again struck in the 25th minute to consolidate his team’s position. T interval the match was in favour of Army 3-0. The Navy men changed their game plan in the second half and applied attacking strategy and got as many as three penalty corners as well but the luck was not on their side. Army scored their fourth goal through Right in Hammad Zafar in the 56th minute.

NBP outclassed their much junior rivals PTV in the last match of the day by 5-0. The Bankers, who had Olympians Tauseef Rizwan Junior and Akhtar Ali in their squad, demonstrated brilliant stick-work, their dodging was excellent, dribbling was equally good and they kept control of the ball most of the time during the course of the match. The Bankers took lead in the 8th minute through their Right In Arslan Qadir which was doubled by Center Forward Dilber in the 27th minute.

Three minutes later Center Half Tauseef scored the third goal for his team on a penalty corner. The Bankers were leading 3-0 at the interval. The PTV players made futile attempts to reduce the margin in the second half. Dilber again struck in the 47th minute to register his second and team’s fourth goal. And in the 61st minute Full Back Kashif Shah score the fifth goal for the Bankers. The PTV got four penalty corners but failed to convert them. The Bankers converted one of the five penalty corner they got.

Three matches will be played in the NBP National Hockey Championship at the Johar Town Hockey Stadium here on Friday (today).

PTV and HEC will play for the ninth position, while Police and Navy will contest for the seventh position. Army and Port Qasim Authority will play the third match for the fifth position. —- PHF