International Sana Sher Bahadur claimed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Regional Junior Squash title after defeating her strong rival Mehwish Ali in the final by 3-2 here at Qamar Zaman Squash Complex on Wednesday.
Deputy Commissioner Peshawar Shafiullah Khan was the chief guest on this occasion. Regional Sports Officer Miss Gul Rukh, District Sports Offi-cer Charsadda Tehsil Ullah, DSO Officer Anwar Kamal Burki, Director Operation Aziz Ullah Jan, former World No. 11 Mansoor Zaman, AD Ashfaq, squash coaches Tahir Iqbal, Muhammad Waseem, Asian gold medalist Alam Zeb, Female coach Riaz Khan, Niamat Ullah, Tournament Referee Adil Faqir, Chief Referee Munawar Zaman, players and spectators were also present.
In the final of the U19 Girls Sana Sher Bahadur of Pakistan Army defeated Mehwish Ali of Bank of Khyber by 3-2, the score was 11-7, 11-13, 12-10, 8-11, and 11-8. Sana Sher Bhadur won the first set but she lost the second at 11-13 before overcoming on two three set points.
Mehwish played well and did not give her chance in the second set and marching into victory. After 1-1, Sana took the third set by 12-10 after tough fight faced at the hands of Mehwish but again she lost the fourth set at 8-11 that won by Mehwish.
Both Sana and Mehwish played well and used some fine lengths and cross courts smashes with some excellent and timely nicks and drops shorts were also witnessed. It was the fifth set in which Sana did not look behind and defeated Mehwish by 11-8 and took the final match at 3-2.
In the Boys Under-11 Muhammad Hamza de-feated Muhammad Khan in another thrilling final decided in five sets, the score was 12-10, 8-11, 14-12, 8-11 and 11-9. Both Hamza and Muhammad Khan played well against each other as the final lasted for 42-minutes.
In another thrilling final played between Talal Khan and Abdul Zaman, son of Mansoor Zaman that lasted for almost 49-minute wherein both exhibited some beautiful shorts including key nicks and drops were also witnessed.
The two received thundering applauses from the sitting spectators. The score of the final was 11-8, 11-6, 4-11, 17-19, and 14-12. Both stretched to five sets battle and even in the fourth set it was point to point process wherein they raced up to 17-19. In the U15 final national player Ibrahim Zeb of PAF de-feated Nouman in straight sets, the score was 11-6, 11-4 and 11-4. The match decided in one-sided affairs.
More than 100 players from Peshawar Region participated in the Championship. Deputy Commis-sioner Peshawar Shafiullah Khan distributed prizes among the players along with Director Operation Azizullah Khan, Regional Sports Officer and District Sports Officer Peshawar Miss Gul Rukh Yasir. He also awarded cash prizesof Rs. 7000 and 5000 to winners and runners-up besides Rs. 2000 to semi-finalist of U19, 13-year-old Sunzil, Zohra and Fahad Ahmad Khan. The two-day Squash Championship held at Qamar Zaman Squash Complex Peshawar under the auspices of Regional Sports Office Pe-shawar.
Speaking on this occasion, Deputy Commis-sioner Peshawar Shafi Ullah Khan said that there are most allocation of funds for holding all years various sports activities. —APP
