Pakistan's Hockey team returns from European Trip
Pakistan Times Sports Desk

KARACHI: Pakistan hockey squad returned home Tuesday after their month-long European tour and now they will be reassembling here on July 15 for the final phase of training camp before the Athens Olympics.

Three Karachi players including former Pakistan Captain Ahmed Alam, star striker Sohail Abbas and centre-forward Kashif Jawwad arrived here while players belonging to upcountry directly landed in Lahore.

Runner-up in Tri-Nation Event

Pakistan finished runner-up in Tri-Nation event in England also involving Australia and Great Britain. They also finished runner-up behind host Germany in the Hamburg Masters and on the final phase of their trip, Pakistan secured third spot in four-nation Robobank Trophy in Amsterdam. Germany won the title with the Netherlands got second position and India fourth and last.

Chief coach Roelant Oltmans, goal-keeping coach Ronald Jensen and other officials will be arriving before the national camp. Pakistan team’s Assistant coach Tahir Zaman have stayed back England with his sister and would be arriving in the next few days.

Training Camp

Pakistan team’s short training camp commence at Hockey Club of Pakistan from July 15 before flying to Spain to play a series of match against host Spain and Argentina before proceeding to Greece where they will have recreational trip at Greek Island before arriving for Olympic Games which opens on August 13.

Dutch Coach Roelant Oltmans is also be finalizing Pakistan squad for Olympic during the training camp in Karachi.●