Initially, Mahoor was leaning towards Athletics but examining her personal preferences and Badminton skills, her father introduced her to Badminton. Mahoor Shahzad, at the age of 12, started off by playing outdoor Badminton and her increasing love for the game insisted her father to take membership in Sunset Club, where she could get training under a professional coach. In Mahoor’s early days, her father used to train her with the assistance of a professional coach. When her father was satisfied with her basic training, Coach Anwar Saeed took the responsibility to train her for competitive badminton.
After a few months of professional training, she participated in the Junior National (U-19) tournament where she outclassed everyone and clinched the Junior National title. Being just 13 years old in the competition, she proved her talent by beating senior players and this marked her memorable victory as Mahoor quotes in an interview “ It holds a great importance for me” (source: The Nation). Moving on, she clinched the National Junior (u-16) title twice in 2010 and 2012 respectively. This victory led her parents and coaches to believe that she could be a useful asset for Pakistan.
Her first accomplishment as a professional Badminton player increased her hunger and she increased the number of her training hours. She was determined to train harder than the previous day and made each sweat count. She wanted to break the norm where players wait for their junior careers to end before they perform at a higher level, which signalled her opponents as a threat. Mahoor was successful in doing that, as she became Pakistan’s no. 2 in women’s singles and became the part of Green Team at the Asian games (2014) held in South Korea. Furthermore, Mahoor Shahzad made her major upset in 2015 when she beat the top ranked Palwasha Bashir in straight sets and won her first All Pakistan Ranking tournament.
A year later she was officially declared as the Best Women Singles player in Pakistan. These impressive performances in such a short span of time were eye catching for her fans and even for Pakistan Badminton Federation. In 2016 Mahoor got selected for the Olympic Association to represent Pakistan in the 4 youth camp of the Chinese Olympic Committee held in Guangzhou. PBF considered Mahoor as an important member of the National team and gave her the chance to compete at Pakistan International series 2016, where she was one step away in grabbing the title.
Also, in the following year she bagged the National Championship 2017 title by beating her rival Palwasha Bashir in the finals. As Mahoor Shahzad aims to perform at international level, this victory boosted her confidence as she saw no threat in her country and wanted to take her Badminton career to the next level. This time her fans expected her to win the International series at the home ground. She fulfilled her fans' expectations, bagging the first international title of her career.
Moreover, her hunger to win international tournaments increased even more and she went to the Annapurna Corporate International Badminton tournament in Nepal, where she played in absence of her coaches and teammates, but still managed to mark her victory there. In the following year, Mahoor represented Pakistan in Asian Games 2018, and played against the former World No.1 Tai Tzu Ying, and Commonwealth Games 2018. In the following year she won a bronze medal in the Bulgarian International Championship 2019 held in Sofia. After competing she flew to Denmark for a training camp where she got trained by international coaches.
However, no champion has it easy. Just 2 weeks before Pakistan International series 2019, she twisted her ankle while training at the Center of Excellence Academy (COE) in Denmark. Just before a major tournament, she was advised by her physiotherapist to rest for a week, which was not affordable at that time. Mahoor did everything from icing to training while wearing an ankle brace to make sure she was fit enough to compete. During her route to the finals, she iced her injury after each match and fastened her recovery.
It was Mahoor Shahzad's determination that led her to the finals where she pulled out the victory by beating the No. 1 seed and World No. 103 Soraya Aghaeihajiagha in the decider. Right after her Singles match, she played Women’s doubles (with Bushra Qayyum), but victory was in favor of their opponents.
She chose not to rest and won the most prestigious title, organised once in 4 years in Pakistan, the National Games 2019 by bagging 2 gold and 1 silver medals. Mahoor Shahzad's dominance is not just in Pakistan, but she has also started to threaten players globally. She was also part of the Bronze medallion team at the 13th South Asian Games 2019 held in Nepal. Mahoor Shahzad has the honour of being the only Pakistani Badminton player to get selected thrice in the Asian Olympic Project 2020. The AOP consists of the training opportunities and competition scholarship for players from developing countries organized by Badminton Asia in accordance to the Badminton Asia Strategic Plan 2016 – 2020.
It would not be wrong to say that Mahoor Shahzad has produced many results for her country. Mahoor Shahzad stood on the podium as the runner up in Women’s doubles in Kenya International 2020 and had to settle for a bronze medal in Women’s doubles in Uganda International 2020. Mahoor Shahzad was successful in defending her Women’s Singles title at National Championship 2020 and also won the Women’s Doubles Gold, proving her capabilities.
Mahoor became National Champion (2021) for the 5th consecutive time in Women's Singles and won a silver medal in Women's Doubles. In 2021, She made history by becoming first every Pakistani Badminton player to qualify for Olympics i.e ‘Tokyo Olympics 2020’.
Future Aims
In an interview by THE NATION, Mahoor says, “My current ranking is 133 in the world, so for now my aim is to be among top 50 players of the world. Once I have achieved that then I will aim to be among top 20 players of the world, then top 10 and then top 5 InshaAllah. I want to take that as a step to step instead of setting an unrealistic aim”.
Mahoor Shahzad, current National Champion of Pakistan is our country's pride, representing Pakistan even on international fronts. She has brought into limelight the importance of effort, consistency, dedication, as well as passion when achieving a goal. Mahoor is grateful for her coaches Farhan, Javed Iqbal, Imran, Iftikhar, & Ali Mehdi, who have contributed so much in her success. We hope she successfully fulfills her mission and continues to be a shining star of Pakistan.
Written by: Muhammad Anas Akhar (Admin FBCOP)
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Good work
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