Bounty’s Outdoor tourney is GHB’s curtain raiser

– Busy year projected

The Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) will get the ball rolling in 2018 with a one-day field hockey tournament on January 28 at the National Stadium, Providence. This tournament which is being sponsored by Bounty Farm Limited will be the first of many activities slated for 2018; it is just the beginning of a highly anticipated year with the National male and female teams set for participation in the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Barranquilla, Colombia in July.
The first tournament will feature all the clubs in Guyana; they will all be looking to

shake off the rust and gain early momentum and form with an eye on the second division 7-a-side league which begins in February with the Saints Ground earmarked as the primary venue. However, preceding that will be the GHB’s Biennial meeting on February 3 which involves all the clubs countrywide at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC), Bourda. Also scheduled for the first half of the year is the four-a-side U-14 Schools competition, the U-18 7-a-side Outdoor league, the Farfan & Mendes Men’s Outdoor league and Lucozade’s Indoor League with a Pre-CAC Warm-up Invitational in Barbados crowning it off in June.
If last year’s accomplishments by the GHB and National teams are anything to go by, in 2018 Guyana can look forward to a brighter year. Last year’s accomplishments included the more than admirable hosting of the Pan American Indoor Championships; our hospitality and logistics were executed to perfection to the point that the GHB received congratulatory notes and plaudits from the Pan American Hockey Federation. It did not stop there as the Guyanese women’s national team made their debut in the tournament and despite not finishing in the top three proved that they are chock full of potential just waiting to be developed and moulded with the right support system and necessary backing by the relevant authorities (government). The men’s national team who finished as bronze medalists in 2014 did not disappoint as well finishing fourth in a quality field of the highest caliber. All this was done almost single handedly by the GHB despite not having a home of their own or the necessary facilities at which to train on. The next achievement was in Jamaica at the CAC Qualifiers where the women took gold and were dominant while the men were almost certainly on course for gold as well had not the lighting gone haywire during their final against the host nation.
The GHB has already proven they are on the rise and once again the question of whether or not the authorities in the relevant niches of government will do all in their power to ensure that potential translates into a developed product hangs in the air. (Michelangelo Jacobus)