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GT&T-sponsored C/bean Junior Hockey Festival opens
– Coach Robert Fernandes believes it will help sustain the sport
The GT&T –sponsored Caribbean Junior Hockey Festival opened yesterday with a number of matches being played, at the National Gymnasium, featuring teams from host Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.
Kaieteur Sport visited the venue and spoke with Junior Coach Robert Fernandes about the tournament and its relevance towards the development of players at the junior level.
Action in the clash between Trinidad and Tobago (green jerseys) and GCC yesterday.
Fernandes, a former national player at both hockey and Squash and who now spends much of his time imparting his skills to players at the junior level, told this newspaper that the Festival is extremely relevant and important for the sustainability of the sport in Guyana as well as across the Caribbean.
He said at this level it is where the skills and other important aspects of the sport are imparted, informing that in Guyana’s case it has only been three years now since a vibrant junior programme was started so for us to be hosting teams from abroad is a step in the right direction.
Fernandes, who has played an integral role in the junior development programme of the Hikers Club, which has produced a cadre of young promising players, believes that Guyana in a short space of time has been able to match the skills of their more established counterparts from other countries in the region and pointed to the sustained coaching programme undertaken by the clubs which has been supported by the Guyana Hockey Board as the principal reason for the improved standard as well as the increase in participants.
“It is only three years now that we’ve started to organise junior tournaments and for us to attract two foreign teams I think it is a commendable achievement,” Fernandes stated.
He said with so many of the new players coming from average households it is not always easy for the clubs or even the Board to afford to cover the cost of travelling to other countries to compete so it helps greatly when they are able to get teams to come to Guyana.
Fernandes expressed hope that the Festival will evolve into an annual event
Trinidad and Tobago (green jerseys) seen on the attack against Old Fort in the Girls division yesterday, at the National Gymnasium.
that could someday attract even more teams not only from the Caribbean, but even those from outside the region like the Diamond Mineral Water usually does.
The Festival continues today with more matches at the same venue, while the results of opening day action will be published in the next issue.
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