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LAHORE: Chief selector Olympian Hanif Khan has said Pakistan have bright chances of earning a place on the victory-stand in next year’s Olympic Games in London.
“Our real target is the Olympic Games and if Pakistan will manage to earn fourth place in the upcoming Champions Trophy (in India in December), then I can say that we will be on the victory-stand at the Olympics,” Hanif, who was here to watch the semi-finals of the third National Junior Championship, told reporters on Saturday.
Hanif said he will finalise the team for the Olympics after the Champions Trophy.
About the future of senior players, he reiterated that only fit players could maintain place in the national team.
“Every senior player will be given a fair chance until he maintains his fitness for international matches,” Hanif said.
“We have examined fitness of the seniors in the last training camp and they all were fit and that is why they were picked in the national side for the (ongoing) Azlan Shah Cup,” he said.
He said the future of Pakistan hockey was safe and a good number of alternates of the seniors were available.
“Whenever the seniors fail to prove their fitness, we can change them as their replacements are available with us,” he added.
He praised the performance of the national team in the Azlan Shah Cup, at Ipoh, Malaysia, and said beating New Zealand and South Korea by a good margin (4-2) was a good sign, showing improvement in the standard of Pakistan’s game.
“We managed to beat New Zealand after losing many times and it is good for our hockey. It is also the result of good combination of senior and junior players,” he said.
He said seniors were supporting juniors to score and hopefully they would continue this trend in future.
