International hockey is set to return to Guyana later this year, with the Guyana Hockey Board planning the marque Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey Festival.
According to president of the Board, Philip Fernandes, interest is high among foreign competitors and plans are on stream for a mega event to close off the year.
The Diamond Mineral Water International Indoor Hockey Festival has been the highlight of the local hockey calendar for close to two decades. It started in 2004.
It has not only attracted the leading clubs and players from Guyana, but consistently those from the Caribbean and North America.
Like with so many local activities, the Festival had to be put on hold owing to the COVID-19 restrictions over the last two years.
It was last held in 2019 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, with teams from Trinidad and Tobago dominating proceedings.
That was the 15th edition of the competition, and Fernandes and his executives at the Guyana Hockey Board are now working to put systems in place for the 16th staging of the tournament.
They have earmarked December 1-4 as the dates for the four-day festival.
“There are a lot of foreign teams showing great interest this year- teams from Canada, Trinidad, Barbados as usual, and we expect a very good tournament this year, so that’s definitely going to be on,” Fernandes told News Room Sport.
“We really look forward to a good closing to the season, which hopefully takes us into next year where we can have a complete season that is free of all the disruptions which we’ve had with COVID and so on.”
At the last tournament in 2019, Trinidad and Tobago teams made a clean sweep of the three categories. Queen’s Park emerged champions of the Men’s and Veterans divisions, while George United took the Ladies category.
