The Guyana women’s hockey team returned from Barbados Sunday evening after a three-day practice session on artificial turf in preparation for the Central American and Caribbean Games set for July 22 – 31 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

This was the team’s second warm-up camp on foreign soil in recent weeks and, according to a release, the players were able to maximise their use of the artificial turf at the Sir Garfield Sobers Sports Centre in Wildey during their trip.

Training sessions were held each morning and training matches in the evenings. While the score lines once again failed to flatter, the team, which lost 1-2, 0-4 and 1-4 against Barbados, the performances, according to head coach Philip Fernandes, was significantly better than when the team played against Trinidad three weeks ago.

He said the scores were not of great concern since the team was still experimenting with players in different roles on the field with different objectives.

Fernandes said training camps are very rigorous as there is very little time to rest and the players are exposed to playing under conditions of great fatigue.

“Apart from continuing to familiarise the players with the artificial pitch, these games provided us an excellent opportunity to test and make tactical adjustments,” he said, adding “So we were not necessarily playing our best team for the entire match. The team’s performance was very encouraging and my only regret is that we cannot have more time on an artificial pitch before we head off to Puerto Rico.”

The Barbados Hockey Federation has secured the services of former Pakistani International and FIH coach, Tahir Zaman, to work with their national teams ahead of the tournament and the women’s team jets off to England for a one-week training camp in preparation for the games. This is not unlike Caribbean counterparts Trinidad whose women’s team is set to visit Argentina for its preparation.

Fernandes told Stabroek Sport that while he feels his charges are now within striking distance of these two nations, the imbalance of funds available for preparation makes it difficult to stay abreast. Trinidad and Barbados are expected to be among the top teams in Puerto Rico along with Mexico, and Guyana has been drawn in a group with two of the three.

Guyana faces Bermuda in its first Pool A match of the Games on July 22 before taking on Barbados on July 24 and Trinidad on July 26. Pool B comprises Mexico, Jamaica, hosts Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The opening ceremony of the games is set for July 17 while the women’s hockey final will be contested on July 30.

Guyana’s team will resume training sessions at the national gymnasium, the GCC ground and the Providence stadium for the next four weeks before the games begin.