Ghana to host Women’s World Hockey League
Ghana will host Round One of the Women’s World Hockey League at the Theodosia Okoh hockey stadium in Accra between September 9 and 11, 2016.
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Four countries, Nigeria, Kenya, Namibia and host Ghana, will battle for qualification into Round Two of the Women’s World Hockey League scheduled for February, next year.
All the participating teams are expected to arrive in Ghana by September 7, to go through some formalities to ensure a smooth tournament.
The Executive Treasurer of Africa Hockey Federation, Madam Elizabeth King, who briefed the Daily Graphic about the tournament, said Zimbabwe was expected to participate in the three-day tournament, but pulled out for lack of funds.
She said each of the participating teams would arrive with a 28-member contingent made up of 18 players and seven officials. She said in spite of the financial handicap the Ghana Hockey Association (GHA) was going through, Ghana was poised to win the tournament He appealed to sports fans to converge on the national hockey pitch in their numbers to support team Ghana during the tournament.
“The winner of this tournament will qualify for the Round Two of the World Women’s World Cup tournament, so it is important that as a host country we win the tournament, hence the need for sports fans to fill the hockey stadium to cheer our players,” she explained.
Madam King, who is also the treasurer of the, GHA said their main rival was Kenya, but gave an assurance that Ghana had made adequate preparations to contain the Kenyan opposition.
She said the main challenge confronting the GHA was funding, explaining that the sports ministry had not been honouring its financial obligations to the association in recent years.
She said the GHA should have laid a new astro turf prior to the tournament, but because of financial constraints, they were patching up the old one. She, therefore, appealed to corporate bodies, organisations and individuals to support them in cash and in kind to enhance the success of the tournament.