Spirited Pakistan Wapda clinched the trophy after upsetting Pakistan Army in the thrilling final of the Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa National Under-23 Volleyball Championship played here at indoor hall of PSB Coaching Center on Friday. Chairman, Pakistan Volleyball Federation Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqoob was the chief guest on this occasion. Member Provincial Assembly Arif Yousaf also visited the final and remained there for some time by witnessing the first set of the final. Soon after that he left due to his pre-engagement.
The final match provided great thrill for the sitting spectators inside the indoor hall with Pakistan Wapda faced tough resistance at the hands of Pakistan Army players in the first set, the score was 25-23. The et was tied at 6-6, 7-7, 8-8, 9-9, 10-10, 12-12, 13-13, 15-15, 16-16, 17-17, 18-18, 19-19, 20-20, 21-21, 22-22 and 23-23 before Wapda took the set.
Wapda's main smashers Muhammad China, Muhammad Waseem, Muhammad Mudasir and Muhammad Zubair have played well by showering some excellent and forceful spikings against Army blocking team of Fakhar Uddin, Abdur Zaheer, Qadir and Muhammad Danish.
Army setter Ali Raza and libro Salim Iqbal also played well but they could not adjust to the condition against Pakistan Wapda. Pakistan Wapda after facing denting task in the first set managed their position accordingly and dominated the proceedings by winning the second set 25-21 and third set at 25-19.
Army was leading the second set like the first set with both Fakhar, and Zaheer played well at the net by hitting some perfect spikings but it could not work due to strong block by Wapda's blockers team of Muhammad Zubair and Nabil Shehzad. The Wapda libro Ihsan and setter Owais also played well and succeeded in defeating Army blockers.
The two teams played well but Army players did not click this time after winning the semi-final against strong Khyber Pakhtunkhwa team in the five sets on Thursday. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has also the honour of defeating Pakistan Wapda in the straight.
It was an easy sailing in the third and decisive set when Pakistan Wapda marched into victory by sealing the fate of Pakistan Army in straight set 3-0. In the third position match Khyber Pakhtunkhwa defeated POF Waha in straight set 3-0 and got third position. The main smashers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Haroon and Bilal showed smashes one after other giving no time to POF Wah blockers at the net to stop and thus marched into victory. The score was 25-21, 25-23 and 25-19.
At the end, the chief guest Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqoob gave trophies and cash prizes to the winners, runners-up and third position teams besides gold, silver and bronze medals. Chaudhry Muhammad Yaqoob on this occasion also announced that Pakistan will take part in the forthcoming 23rd Asian Junior Volleyball Championship in Iran to be scheduled from May 1-9, 2017 while the senior team will visit World Islamic Games to be played at Baku, Azerbaijan from May 12-28, 2017. He said Pakistan will also participate in the Asian Volleyball Championship to be played at Indonesia.
He announced that the Pakistan Volleyball Federation has included the tournament in its national calendar and would be organised every year. PVF, he said, has more focus on the junior and Under-23 players so that a young teams could prepared for longer duration for intentional outings.