AFP names team for Al-Fajr Championship

KARACHI: Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) on Saturday unveiled the names of their eight athletes who will feature in the 22nd Al-Fajr International Indoor Athletics Championships, which will be hosted by Iran in Tehran from February 12-13.
The athletes were picked after formal trials conducted at the Jinnah Stadium in Islamabad on Saturday in which athletes from all the affiliated units of the federation participated,” AFP said on Saturday.
The AFP chief Major General (retd) Muhammad Akram Sahi also witnessed the trials.
A three-member selection committee headed by Brigadier Ghulam Jillani, who also happens to be the senior vice-president of AFP, conducted the trials.
General Manager Sports WAPDA Mohammad Zafar and Manager Army Athletics Major Masood Haider were the other members of the selection committee.
The squad will leave for Tehran on February 10 and will return on Febraury 14.
The AFP secretary Mohammad Zafar told ‘The News’ after the trials that names of the three officials who would accompany the athletes will be announced later. He said that this year Pakistani athletes would also feature in the Asian Championship and World Championship to be held in China in June and August respectively.
During the last three years, Pakistani athletes suffered a lot as they missed a few international events particularly the 2014 Incheon Asian Games due to sports conflict. However, last year one athlete Asad-ur-Rehman featured in the World Junior Championship in the United States.
Squad: Nokar Hussain (400m), Samiullah (400m, kp), Mohammad Jaffar (pole-vault), Mohammad Ikram (800m), Mehboob Ali (400m), Mohammad Nawaz (60m hurdles), Mohammad Sajjad (60m hurdles), Sumaira Tayyaba (60m and 60m hurdles).