Jr. Pan Am rescheduling buys Guyana hockey time
-but cost of Guyana’s participation has gone up says Fernandes
With the Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) rescheduling the 2021 Junior Pan American Championships to August 16 to 29 in Santiago, Chile, Guyana’s chances of competing has been favorably enhanced.
“The rescheduling of the tournament from April to August has definitely bought us some more time,” said national coach Robert Fernandes.
The competition was originally scheduled for November 2020 but was moved to April, 2021 and now to August.
Despite the shift in the dates for the competition, the athletes’ eligibility has been maintained based on the date that the Junior Pan American Championships were due to originally be held last year.
Regarding the age of athletes, the International Hockey Federation [FIH], has confirmed that all players shall be under 21 years of age as of December 31, 2019, that is all players shall be born on or after January 1, 1999.
The PAHF took into consideration the Novel Coronavirus pandemic when making the decision to reschedule the championships.
Fernandes also expressed his views on the impact the pandemic had on the sport.
“The pandemic still looms largely over our preparation and our ability to compete in the tournament. Right now the tournament has been extended to two weeks and that has driven up our budget significantly, it’s now in excess of $13 million, which is a formidable amount considering the current situation,” Fernandes stated.
“In terms of our preparation for the tournament, I met with the players virtually yesterday and we have decided to make the first few weeks of our preparation some individual strength and fitness work and we have a medical team reviewing the FIH return to play safety guidelines and also the local restrictions and they will be coming up with some recommendations that we will be approaching the Task Force with in an effort to restart under those conditions.”
The coach continued, “Obviously we would have to be innovative and start with small sessions and so on but ultimately, we will have to start having practice matches closer to the tournament so hopefully, by then, the vaccine has made things like that possible.”
PAHF is currently working on a document that will serve as the framework for the safe return to competition. The evolution of the COVID-19 impact, continues to be very dynamic, so PAHF will continue updating their document and work with the host country to inform, in due time, about the protocols and requirements to enter Chile, said Fernandes.