NSC, GHB applauds efforts in hosting Diamond Mineral Water Hockey

Dec 07, 2022 Sports

Kaieteur News – The National Sports Commission is extending thanks to the organizers of the Diamond Mineral Water for putting on a wonderful competition amidst the Covid 19 pandemic. When Kaieteur Sports spoke with the President of The Guyana Hockey Board [GHB] Mr Phillip Fernandes, he applauded everyone that made the event possible, despite the two year break due to the pandemic. He also deemed the tournament was a great success.

He also lamented that, as a result of Covid 19; the GHB faced a few challenges such as, travel cost; whereby the cost of travel went up during this period, also disenfranchising of players; players were affected significantly, whereby both players, as well as teams from North America were unable to be a part of this year’s competition.

Philip Fernandes; head of the GHB

Luckily, they were really good support from neighbouring Trinidad. Of which, we saw two men’s teams came down from Trinidad as well as the female team and two veteran teams. He confirmed that they definitely had good participation from the international Diaspora, which was good for the future hockey tournament in Guyana and the region.

Despite the gap in terms of the continuity of the games affected us majorly, also players suffered from lack of practice during the pandemic. Due to this, players were unable to train at this time. They indeed lost some ground leading up to competition, he said.

Nevertheless, to sum things up regarding the competition, we were still able to see great enthusiasm among players and we all witness high quality of play throughout the competition. It is ok to say, the Guyana Hockey Board [GHB] and Diamond Mineral Water festival was indeed successful.

When reporters ask about the lack of support in the stands? He revealed that, his administration remains committed to continue evolving the sport in Guyana and promises Public Relation will continue to put in the work to increase the level of support for future tournaments. He also revealed also that the inclement weather played a part in the lack of support at the games.

It is with great consideration, after seeing the level of competitiveness by both male and female teams contested at Diamond Mineral Water Hockey festival we must thank the organizers for delivering a wonderful tournament.

The President of the GHB told reporters, he thought the teams that made it into the finals played fantastic hockey, even the other teams that took part of the competition contributed to the success of the event by playing very high quality of hockey throughout the tournament.

According to Mr Fernandes, the Guyanese teams may have suffered a bit from not having access to facilities leading up to competition, due to the fact that many sports disciplines were trying to share the facility. And therefore it was less available to any one sport, he explained.

But he promised, with the efforts that we see the administration is doing at the moment, we are likely to see more facilities for different sports. So much are in store for hockey in Guyana and regionally for 2023.

Hockey action returns in 2023 with the new season beginning in late January. There will be a full local calendar for hockey, which begins with the junior tournament, as well as the school tournament and of course, the senior tournament.

Fernandes stated that the main focus of the National sports Commission [NSC] at this time is preparing the senior Men’s team for the CAC games. The preparation of the senior Men’s team remains top priority, as the Men’s prepare to compete in the CAC games slated for next year. The senior Men’s who would have qualified for the CAC game which remains the main focus for 2023. (Kester Williams)

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