Hockey: World League Rd 1 pushes off today

George Ernest Asare Sports News Sep - 09 - 2016 , 16:54

The stage is now set for the big push- off of the Hockey World League Round One tournament being hosted at the Theodosia Okoh Hockey Stadium from today to Sunday.

Already, the tournament directors, together with the umpires, technical officers and officials from the International Hockey Federation (FIH), have hit town ready to take charge of the tournament , described as first class by the Local Organising Committee (LOC).

The three participating teams, Namibia, Nigeria and Kenya have also joined the hosts, Ghana, ready to do battle for the one slot each for the male and female teams for Round Two.

Beside the pitch that has been put in excellent shape to ensure smooth display of skills the stage is set for a weekend of hockey extravaganza.

“Both the national male and female hockey teams are in excellent shape , ready to win their respective matches to make themselves and the nation proud” , the chairperson of the Local Organising Committee, Madam Elizabeth Safoah King, told the Graphic Sports in an interview yesterday.

Accoding to Madam King, the teams started residential camping a week ago to fine-tune their strategy to cage their opponents , insisting there was no way Ghana would not qualify to play in the Hockey World Round 2.

“The Host and Win Slogan is on course because the players are well motivated to excel in this tournament,” she assured, adding that winning would propel the teams to a higher stage where Ghana will be participating in the Commonweath and Hockey World Cup tournaments which had eluded the country for some time now.

The Namibia females have withdrawn from the tournament so the national male hockey team will kick-start the tournament with an encounter with Namibia at 7:45 pm today .The tournament will, however, start with the ladies from Kenya slugging it out with their Nigeria counterparts at 1 pm today with their males taking the stage at 5.20pm.