KARACHI:
Pakistan squash coach Faheem Gul believes tougher and smarter coaching can assist the nation’s gamers enhance their world rankings and compete successfully at a better degree in worldwide circuit.
“I feel there’s a want for tougher and smarter coaching,” Faheem Gul advised The Specific Tribune in an in depth chat.
“Individuals discuss seven to eight hours of coaching, however issues have modified quite a bit. Every part is scientific now. Even when gamers handle two hours of tougher and smarter coaching, they will nonetheless make progress. The issue is that the boys are afraid of coaching,” Faheem mentioned.
Faheem not too long ago coached Pakistan’s squash staff on the twentieth Asian Video games in Aichi-Nagoya, the place the nation gained one silver and two bronze medals in squash.
Pakistan’s top-ranked participant Noor Zaman, and Mohammad Ashab Irfan claimed bronze medals within the males’s singles, whereas the boys’s staff, that includes Noor, Irfan and Nasir Iqbal, gained silver.
Faheem was glad with the general efficiency however felt Pakistan had missed a chance to win gold within the staff occasion.
“The boys did nicely, and we may have gained the staff occasion last had Noor gained his match. He was main 2-1 however misplaced the subsequent two video games,” Faheem mentioned.
Malaysia’s Ameeshenraj defeated Nasir Iqbal 3-1 earlier than Yow Eain Ng secured a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Noor Zaman to clinch the staff gold for Malaysia.
Faheem had combined emotions about Nasir’s efficiency, saying the Pakistani participant wanted to develop into extra constant.
“Nasir is nice, however the issue is that he wins a recreation after which loses momentum and is unable to keep up it,” Faheem mentioned.
“Our boys might want to work tougher if they’re to enhance their rankings,” he added.
Faheem mentioned Pakistan had nearly no practical likelihood of qualifying for the squash occasions on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“There is no such thing as a likelihood. It has ended. The winner of the boys’s singles occasion on the Asian Video games needed to qualify,” Faheem mentioned.
“Solely 16 gamers will compete within the Olympics and we’re out,” he was fast so as to add.
Squash will make its Olympic debut in Los Angeles, with 16 gamers competing in every of the boys’s and girls’s occasions.
Underneath the qualification framework, locations are allotted by means of continental championships, the host nation, world rankings, a universality place and a last qualifying match.
The Asian Video games singles champions secured continental qualification, with Malaysia’s Yow Eain Ng and Sivasangari Subramaniam profitable the boys’s and girls’s titles, respectively, in Nagoya.
Pakistan’s probabilities have nearly ended, given the present world rankings of its main gamers. Noor Zaman is the nation’s highest-ranked participant at No 30, adopted by Mohammad Ashab Irfan at No 49, Asim Khan at No 77 and Nasir Iqbal at No 95.
Even when a Pakistani participant secures a spot within the last qualifying match, he would nonetheless have to win by means of to achieve the Olympics.
Faheem additionally harassed the significance of competing extra frequently on the worldwide circuit.
“Sure, they might want to play eight to 10 matches, and I feel they’ve began enjoying extra now,” he mentioned.
Wanting forward, Faheem expressed confidence that Pakistan may win gold on the upcoming third Asian Group Squash Championships which will probably be held in Islamabad from November 3-7.
“We’re assured of profitable gold,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, he was much less optimistic about the usual of ladies’s squash in Pakistan, saying appreciable work remained to convey the gamers as much as worldwide requirements.
“They’ve a protracted solution to go. Their normal just isn’t that good,” Faheem mentioned.