Officials were expecting a baptism of fire in Guyana’s opening match against Barbados, but both men and women’s teams are feeling the heat in the Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) Caribbean Hockey Cup tournament at the National Hockey Centre in Port-of-Spain. The Guyanese are facing a tough outing in the four-nation tournament with each team losing twice and are now looking to salvage some sort of pride in their final preliminary matches of the round-robin competition.
After the Guyana women’s team suffered a 5-0 defeat at the hands of Barbados in the opening match, the men’s side fared slightly better going down to Barbados 4-0 on the opening day the of competition.
And, although Philip Fernandes, coach of the women’s team, was expecting a difficult first game against the Bajans, the Guyanese men’s team flattered to deceive and crumbled to Barbados.
As fate would have it, the Guyanese were next pitted against the highly-rated hosts Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday evening and once again both teams were beaten, with the women’s side crumbling 7-0 while the men put up a fierce fight but succumbed 1-3 to their Trinidadian counterparts.
In the men’s encounter, Trinidad skipper Kwandwane Brown scored twice in the first half to give the Trinidadians a 2-0 lead at half time and pushed the lead further in the 51st minute through a goal by Akim Touissant.
Guyana’s consolation goal came off the stick of Aderemi Simon, one minute before the final whistle.
In the women’s match, there were hat-tricks for Luces Yesenia and Oire Trotman, while captain Stacey Siu Butt netted one in Trinidad and Tobago’s 7-0 win.
The Guyanese now face Jamaica today and they will be hoping to salvage lost pride against the players from the land of Wood and Water whom they have contested favourably against over the years.
The women will go into action at 15:00 hours, while the men will do battle at 19:00 hours.
Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados share the lead in the men’s competition with six points each, while Guyana and Jamaica have failed to score a point,
Jamaica lead with six points in the women’s division with Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados locked on three points each and Guyana yet to get off the mark.
The playoff for third and fourth and championship honours will be played on Sunday to bring the curtains down on the tournament.
The tournament sanctioned by the PAHF is the first of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean and will help the teams especially improve their ranking on the international stage.
