Sports News | Hockey Activities to Resume in Pakistan in August, Players to Get One-time Benefit
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. Suspended since March due to the COVID-19 outbreak, hockey activities are set to resume in Pakistan from next month with a five-a-side domestic tournament, while the country's Hockey Federation (PHF) has also decided to give one-time allowance to 30 players to cope up with the current health crisis.
Karachi, Jul 16 (PTI) Suspended since March due to the COVID-19 outbreak, hockey activities are set to resume in Pakistan from next month with a five-a-side domestic tournament, while the country's Hockey Federation (PHF) has also decided to give one-time allowance to 30 players to cope up with the current health crisis.
After the five-a-side tournament, the national hockey championship in September-October will also be held at different venues in a proper bio-secure environment in the wake of the pandemic, the PHF said.
PHF secretary Asif Bajwa told reporters that hockey activities have remained suspended like all other sporting events in Pakistan since March due to the deadly virus.
"But finally we are set to resume hockey activities from August but in an environment where all SOPs and protocols of the COVID-19 will be followed to keep the players, officials and match officials safe," he said.
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Bajwa himself had to go into quarantine in Lahore after contracting the virus, forcing the PHF office to remain shut for four months.
Bajwa also said that the federation had decided to pay 30 players -- seniors and juniors -- a one-time COVID allowance of 30,000 rupees each to help them cope up with the current economic crunch.
"Although the PHF is struggling financially, the president felt that in these difficult times we needed to do something for the players," he said.
Bajwa's announcement to resume hockey activities came just a few days after the FIH (International Hockey Federation) announced intentional hockey would restart in September with some matches of the Pro-League in Europe.
Bajwa said that youth hockey was the future of the game and the five-a-side version would be a game-changer and the federation has decided to take it very seriously to introduce it at the school level too.
He said the FIH also has a plan to host a five-a-side World Cup and PHF has already started preparations for raising a strong team for this new format of the game.
He said in this regard a good number of Pakistani coaches attended an online course conducted by the FIH this month.
"The five-a-side tournament would provide great entertaining hockey like T20 cricket and hopefully it would set a new direction for the game of hockey," said Bajwa.
Pakistan is also planning to send its junior team to the Asia Junior Cup to be held in Lucknow early next year. PTI Cor SSC SSC SSC 07162154 NNNNut forms telling authorities where they could be found, or that they weren't where they said they would be when testers arrived.
Coleman said in his post he has been appealing the latest missed test for six months with the AIU, which runs the anti-doping program for World Athletics. He explained there was no record of anyone coming to his home and that if he had been called he was only five minutes away.
It's the second time Coleman has faced a potential ban for a whereabouts violation. Coleman won the 100 meters at the world championships in Doha, Qatar, last September after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency dropped his case for missed tests because of a technicality.
“I have never and will never use performance enhancing supplements or drugs,” Coleman wrote Tuesday.
“I am willing to take a drug test EVERY single day for the rest of my career for all I care to prove my innocence.” After winning the gold medal in Doha, Coleman said he needed to be more careful to keep track of his whereabouts.
“I haven't been careless. I think I can just be more mature about it, more diligent about updating the app. But I mean, I think everybody in this room is not perfect. Everybody has made mistakes,” he said.
“Going forward, I just try to do a better job about being more diligent about it.”
Coleman is the latest in a string of runners hit with whereabouts charges in 2020.
The AIU filed a similar charge this month against women's 400-meter world champion Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain. She was already under investigation when she won gold in Doha last year in the fastest time since 1985.
Former U.S. national 200 champion Deajah Stevens was suspended in May. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)