National Hockey Team complete second CAC warm-up camp

Jun 22, 2010 Sports

Team’s development encouraging – Fernandes

The Guyana women’s hockey team returned on Sunday evening from their second warm-up camp on foreign soil in preparation for their participation in the Central American & Caribbean Games scheduled for July 22-31 in Mayaguez Puerto Rico.
While in Barbados from Friday to Sunday, the team were able to maximise their use of the artificial turf at the Sir Garfield Sobers Sports Centre in Wildey by training on each of the three mornings and playing training matches in the evenings.
Head Coach Philip Fernandes in a release said that while the score-lines once again failed to flatter the Guyanese as they lost by 2-1, 4-0 and 4-1 against Barbados nationals, the performance was significantly better than when the team played against Trinidad three weeks ago.
Fernandes indicated that the training camps were very rigorous since there was very little time to rest and the players were exposed to playing under conditions of great fatigue.

The national Ladies team seen under the guidance of Head Coach Philip Fernandes in Barbados recently.

He indicated that the scores were not of great concern since the team was still experimenting with players in different roles on the field with different objectives. “Apart from continuing to familiarise the players with the artificial pitch, these games provided an excellent opportunity for us to test and make tactical adjustments. We were not necessarily playing our best team for the entire match. The team’s performance was very encouraging and my only regret is that we cannot have more time on an artificial pitch before we head off to Puerto Rico,” Fernandes pointed out.
The Barbados Hockey Federation has secured the services of former Pakistani International and FIH coach, Tahir Zaman, to work with their national teams ahead of the tournament and the women’s team jets off to England for a one-week training camp in preparation for the games.
This is not unlike Caribbean counterparts Trinidad and Tobago whose women’s team is set to visit Argentina for their preparation.
He added that while he feels his charges are now within striking distance of these two nations, the imbalance of funds available for preparation makes it difficult to stay abreast. Trinidad and Barbados are expected to be among the top teams in Puerto Rico along with Mexico and Guyana has the misfortune of being drawn in a group with two of the three. Guyana faces Bermuda in their first Pool A match of the Games on July 22, before taking on Barbados on the 24th and Trinidad on 26th.
Pool B comprises Mexico, Jamaica, hosts Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
The Opening Ceremony of the Games is scheduled for July 17, while the women’s hockey final will be contested on July 30.
The Guyanese nationals will resume training at the National Gymnasium, the GCC ground and the Providence Stadium for the next four weeks, before they depart.