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Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey Festival earmarked for this year
– GHB President anticipates another successful return
The Guyana Hockey Board’s (GHB) marquee International engagement, the Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey Festival, has been allocated to be hosted later this year, according to the President of the local governing body, Philip Fernandes.
In this flashback, George United Captain, Brianna Govia (centre), of T&T tackles Saints defender, Rene James, for possession in the Female Division of the 15th edition of the Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey Festival in 2019.
This event, last hosted in 2019 when Trinidad and Tobago’s Queen’s Park Hockey Club dominated all three categories in the 15th edition, is Guyana’s only International affair hosted here on the annual Calendar of activities, usually contested at the National Gymnasium.
Fernandes stated, “The Diamond Mineral Water International Indoor Hockey Championships is going to happen again this year. We are right now in talks with a number of teams, most of them out of Trinidad, some of them out of Canada. And of course our own Guyanese teams are really looking forward to this because it’s our lone International level competition that we have on our shores.”
“So, I’m very encouraged by the level of interest we have on the international scene. The cost of flights at the moment is high. So we’re doing some analysis. Teams also are checking on their financing for such things. But I expect a good edition of that tournament this year. And I think that being that we did not have it for the past couple of years; I think that this would be another return with some excitement,” he revealed.
The tournament suffered a huge blow like so many others from every discipline in Guyana and around the world when the pandemic got into its full stride. At the time, the board was on track to host the 16th edition.
“The couple of years out that we had with the COVID disruptions and so on did affect what would usually be our preparation period. So we are starting a bit later than normal. But I anticipate that many of the countries probably would have been in the same situation, especially the small nations similar to our size,” said the former national hockey player.
“The larger countries like USA and Argentina, with the amount of players they have, I’m sure they would have had ongoing activities in some way. But I think that we now have to really make up that gap. But we’re not alone. Everybody has faced the same global pandemic, and so, we just have to try to see what is the most economical way to get our support players up to draft quality,” the President added.
Future International Engagements…
Under the International Engagements bracket, the GHB is currently chartering a way forward for both senior and junior teams to have the opportunity to represent Guyana.
“The senior national women’s team is in a bit of a lull at the moment in terms of their international schedule. Remember, when it’s a country like ours, we can’t just participate in everything that comes along because it’s very expensive to do. So, we have to pick and choose our battles,” Fernandes opined.
“Next year there is talk of a Caribbean Championship and I think the Senior National Women will have to focus on that to try to see if we could participate. The date and venue is not yet set; there is talk about somewhere around mid-year and it might be Jamaica, but that’s not confirmed as yet.”
He continued: “On the junior calendar, however, there is an under-21 tournament for boys and for girls in Barbados, end of the first quarter. This year, we did take a national women’s team to Bermuda, they were not as successful as we had hoped, but the games that they lost, they lost by very narrow one to two goal margins.”
“So, they were very competitive in the tournament. It’s one of those tournaments that luck didn’t shake our way, but that team that we took had as many as six under-21 Internationals, and therefore, we have that group as a core for the team for next year.” We have to build on some of the newcomers to the game and strengthen them up to the point where they can actually add value to the team and hopefully have good teams participating in that tournament,” the National Sports Commission’s (NSC) Commissioner affirmed.
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