Afghanistan Ladies team to train at Female Badminton Academy
Associated Press of Pakistan
Thursday, 12 April 2007
ISLAMABAD, Apr 12 (APP): The ladies badminton team of Afghanistan will play training matches here at Pakistan’s first-ever Female Badminton Academy.
This was stated Thursday by Saima Batool who is Incharge-cum-Chief Coach of “Repose” Ladies Badminton Club and Academy.
She said the Chief of Afghanistan Badminton Federation, Gul Hazoori, is in touch with the Academy for the visit of his country’s ladies badminton team to Pakistan.
“The team will get coaching and will also play training matches against our players”, Saima Batool said.
She said the team of the Repose Badminton Academy will also tour Sri Lanka in June to attend a weeklong training camp there while M.G. Aziz Zilani, Treasuer and Chief Coach of Bangladesh Badminton Federation, has also offered to provide technical expertise to the Academy for promotion of female badminton in Pakistan.
Saima said the Academy is concentrating on a core group of six teenage female badminton players who have the potential to represent Pakistan in the ladies competitions in the near future.
These six players, she said, are Dania, Sidra, Nida Rashid Butt, Neelam Nawaz and Sara Mohmand.
“They are training at the Academy, situated at Iqbal Hall G-7/3-4, “, Saima said. “The trainees also do strenuous swimming and gym drills to develop stamina for a tough game like badminton”.
She said the girls had already shown marked improvement by finishing runners-up, while playing for Islamabad, in the recently-held National Badminton Championship at Faisalabad.
She said a medical-cum-psychologist staff, comprising Dr. Zara Batool and Dr. Murtaza Bodla, helps in the training while former national badminton players such as Tahir Ishaq and Imtiaz Gill also sometime assist in coaching of the players.
Saima said she was brought up and educated in England where she was a keen basketball player. “I found on shifting to Pakistan that badminton suits ladies here”.
She said she is running the academy through her own finances though she would like more help from organisations such as Pakistan Sports Trust. She said she was grateful for CDA Chairman Kamran Lashari for letting her establish the Academy at Iqbal Hall.
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