By Troy Peters
The National Under-21 male and female hockey squads intensified their training at the Guyana National Stadium yesterday ahead of their participation at the Junior Pan American hockey championships next month in Barbados.
The men’s squad played a practice match against a combined side of current and former national players and went down 1-3 against their seasoned challengers.
The match was a simulation of an official tournament game where the teams lined up before the start of the game and the Guyana national anthem was played.
The combined side led 2-0 at half time and then netted again during the second period before the Under-21 scored a consolation goal close to the final whistle.
Devin Hooper struck the back of the net twice while Kevin Spencer scored the other goal for the combined team.
Warren Williams netted for the Under-21 squad.
The Guyana Hockey Board has named an 18-man squad and two reserves to compete in the Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) tournament to be played from April 10-18 at the Barbados National Hockey Centre.
Guyana will open their campaign against the United States of America on April 10 and will compete against hosts Barbados and Canada in their other two preliminary games. Meanwhile, the national women’s squad also had a practice match among the players on the eastern half of the field. The players were taken through their paces by head coach Philip Fernandes assisted by former Canadian international player, Guyanese Jonathan Roberts.
The Guyanese female players will be appearing for the first time at the PAHF Under-21 tournament which will be played simultaneously with the men’s competition.
The GHB is expected to announce the women’s squad later this week.
Guyana will compete in Pool B with Canada, Barbados and Chile while Pool a will feature Argentina, Uruguay and USA.
Guyana will face Canada in their opening encounter.
