Guyana women in commendable sixth-placed finish at Junior PanAm hockey
In their first every participation at the Junior Pan American Hockey championships, Guyana women’s team finished a commendable sixth place after going down in their final match of the tournament to Uruguay 0-14 yesterday at the National Hockey Centre in St. Michael, Barbados.
It was a tough encounter for the Guyana squad against their South American counterparts who had scored five goals in the first quarter of the encounter and by half time led 11-0.
Carolina Curcio led the scoring for Uruguay with four goals, Elisa Civetta netted three, Paula Perez and Agustina Diaz each scored a double while Maria Rodriquez and Justina Arrequi netted one apiece.
It brought a fairy tale ending to the Guyanese players’ participation in the tournament since most of the players were playing on artificial surface for the first time in their career and coming up against much more experienced teams.
Head Coach Philip Fernandes had said prior to the team leaving Guyana that the tournament will serve to help the development of the young team for future competition and while also losing to Chile and Canada, the Guyana squad scored a famous 3-0 win over hosts Barbados.
Both men’s and women’s teams were at a disadvantage being the only country in the tournament without artificial pitches, a plight that was also highlighted by Head Coach of the men’s team Robert Fernandes.
Guyana’s men finished a creditable fifth place their best ever showing at the Junior Pan Am tournament.
Meanwhile, Argentina won the men’s competition beating Canada by 6-1 in the final while the United States of America were crowned women’s champions following their victory over Argentina in a penalty shooting 4-1. They two teams were locked 1-1 at the end of regulation time.