LAHORE: A good number of foreign players have confirmed their participation in the back-to-back international squash championships being held in Lahore from October 8 to 17. According to a Punjab Squash Association spokesman, the first international event will be held from Oct 8 to 12 followed by the second from Oct 13 to 17. Later, an international championship for women will also be held. He said 24 players would compete in the main draw of the first event featuring contestants from England, Egypt, Malaysia, France, Hong Kong, Germany and hosts Pakistan. Robert Downer (England); Yousef Soliman, Maze Gamal (Egypt); Ivan Yuen, M Shafiq Kamal, Adeen Idrakie (Malaysia); Auguste Dussourd (France), Tsz Kw an Lau, Tang Ming, Chi Him Wong, Henery Leung (Hong Kong) and Yannik Omlor (Germany) will represent their respective countries at the event. After holding the first event, the spokesman added, the International Men and Women’s Championships will commence from Oct 13 while the finals will be played on Oct 17. The men’s championship will feature players from Egypt, Kuwait, England, Ireland, Malaysia, Germany and Pakistan while Egypt, Iran, France and Pakistan will feature in the women’s event. More foreign players, who confirmed their participation for the second leg are Shehab Essam (Germany), Ammar Altamimi, (Kuwait), Sean Conoroy and Naveed Maleksabet (Ireland). In the women’s event, Menna Nasser, Farhah Momen (both Egypt), Arezoosadat Mousavizadeh (Iran) and Melissa Alves (France) will vie for the honours. The first-round matches will be held at the Punjab Squash Complex, while from the quarterfinals stage to finals all the matches will be played at the four-side-glass courts installed at a private hotel where the foreign players will also stay. Published in Daily Times, October 8th 2018.