Barbados scores Panam goal

The Barbados Hockey Federation is set to host the first Junior Pan American Games qualifier scheduled for mid-March next year.

New president of the Barbados Hockey Federation (BHF), Kofi Hinds, made the disclosure in an interview with Weekend Sport, revealing that eight nations are slated to participate in hockey’s 2025 PANAM Games.

However, while six teams get automatic qualification, the newly renamed PANAM Sports governing body is allowing Barbados to be one of the two teams that has the chance to qualify to fill the final slots.

“Next year, we have a lot on the cards, so there’s a lot of planning and conversation that needs to happen. We are built to host the very first Junior Pan American Games qualifier. PANAM Sports is now the new name for the Pan American Sports organisation, the organisers and owners of the PANAM Games,” Hinds said.

“They have introduced the Junior PANAM Games and where hockey is concerned they added incentives for nations to get involved in junior sports at that level. They’ve actually allocated qualification positions to sports for the senior Pan Am Games based on results (from this Junior Pan Am Games.

“So it provides an additional qualification opportunity for sports like hockey to get into the PANAM Games, where our traditional route has always been through the CAC Games,” he continued.

 “The PANAM Hockey Federation has decided that only eight teams would qualify for that, but only six teams would qualify directly via their regular junior Pan Am Championships. They will host a qualifier for an additional two teams to qualify and they’ve asked us to host that qualifier,” Hinds said.

According to Hinds, if all the stars align and the BHF gets the funding as required, it will be the first international tournament for the Under-21 men’s and women’s national team.

In addition, the national hockey team will be re-engaged at the senior level as they prepare for the 2026 CAC Games after it was announced that both the men’s and women’s teams had qualified based on their last CAC Games performance.

Hinds also revealed there were also plans to introduce Hockey Fives to the island.

“It’s been out there in the world for a couple of years now, but the International Hockey Federation has placed a new focus on Hockey Fives as a format. They’ve had the first Hockey Fives World Cup earlier this year in January and, as a Pan American region, held the very first Pan American Hockey Fives tournament.”

 Hinds also pointed out that Barbados did not participate in the World Cup because the teams wanted to focus on their preparation in CAC Games. However, they are hoping to introduce it at a local level.

“We’re hoping to introduce it locally, see how the clubs like it, and start a national programme around participating in that format of the sport because I think it has a lot of potential for success for small associations. They’re always small compared to Argentina and Canada and I think the World Cup showed us that because it’s a smaller format and the slightly faster game, it offers expanded opportunities.”

Furthermore, the BHF is looking to support its clubs with the usual off-season competition. UWI will host their Scrimfest tournament in February.

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