ISLAMABAD, Sept 22: Pakistan’s top five players will participate in back-to-back international satellite badminton tournaments in Syria and Jordan in October-November this year.

The World Satellite (Ranking) Badminton Tournament will be held at Damascus (Syria) from October 29-November 1 while the second satellite ranking badminton event will take place at Amman, Jordan, from November 3-6.

The players’ names, according to Muhammad Azam Dar, spokesman for the Pakistan Sports Board, are Zeeshan Umer, Wajid Ali, Ahsan Qamar, Muhammad Attique and Rizwan Azam.

Participation in these world ranking tournaments will enable the players to improve their world rankings as well as prepare for the Thomas Cup Asian Zone Qualifying Round.

Both championships will consist of five categories of individual events — men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.

The prize money for each championship is US$5,000.

The Pakistani players will also participate in the Pakistan International Challenge Badminton Tournament to be held at Islamabad from November 25 to 28 and the Indian International Challenge to be held at Chennai, India, from December 1 to 5.

The Pakistan Badminton Federation will hold a national training camp at the Pakistan Sports Complex here after Eid.—APP