PANAJI: A total of 29 teams will fight it out to lift the trophy at the 12th Hockey India Sub-Junior Men’s National Championship 2022, which starts on Wednesday, at Peddem AstroTurf, Mapusa, North Goa. Eight days of pool matches will be followed by quarter-finals on 12 May, the semi-sinals on 14 May and the medal matches are scheduled for 15 May.
The participating teams are divided into eight pools. Teams in Pool A are Hockey Jharkhand, Hockey Gujarat and Hockey Uttarakhand, while Pool B features Hockey Haryana, Hockey Karnataka and Chhattisgarh Hockey. Pool C consists of Uttar Pradesh Hockey, Hockey unit of Tamil Nadu and Hockey Bengal, while Pool D features Manipur Hockey, Hockey Rajasthan, Hockey Himachal and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu Hockey.
Hockey Association of Odisha, Hockey Andhra Pradesh, Kerala Hockey and Hockey Mizoram are in Pool E, while Hockey Punjab, Delhi Hockey, Le Puducherry Hockey and Goans Hockey have been slotted in Pool F. The teams in Pool G are Hockey Bihar, Hockey Arunachal, Telangana Hockey and Hockey Jammu & Kashmir, while Pool H features Hockey Chandigarh, Hockey Maharashtra, Hockey Madhya Pradesh and Assam Hockey.
“We are very proud that the Sub-Junior Hockey Nationals are going to be held in Goa for the first time. We are extremely happy to host the young talent, the future of Indian hockey here in Goa,” said Xavier Marquis, president of Goans Hockey.
On the hosts’ preparations, Goa coach Alexander Remedios said: “The boys have prepared very hard for the tournament, we started the camp on the 18th of April, but did face a few difficulties as the boys had to answer their Std 10th exams. The training period was short, but we assure you that we will give our 100 percent for the tournament”.
Speaking at the prospect of defending the title, Hockey Jharkhand Coach Anu Rahul Minj said: “We are confident of making it to the Semi-Finals, and if things go well, we will hopefully repeat what we did last year. The team has a good mix of young and new players, who will be playing Nationals for the first time. Players have trained hard and are ready to defend the title.”
Meanwhile, the coach of the runners-up team (Hockey Haryana) in this tournament last year, Parveen Mor said: “The preparations for the tournament have been great. There are a lot of new players in the team. They are really excited to represent Haryana at the National Level. We are confident of reaching to the Final, but for that, we will have to go match-by-match and play good Hockey.”
Hockey Maharashtra Coach Aniket More stated, “This will be my first experience of coaching a Sub Junior level team, so personally I am very excited about the tournament. We’ve been training for 15 days, and are shaping up really well for the competition. The excitement is really high in the team, we hope to reach the Semi-Finals of the tournament.”
