(MENAFN- Arab Times) An unmatched field hockey festival atmosphere was created by the Indian Club to celebrate it's Centenary by hosting the ever popular 6-A-Side field Hockey Championship on Nov 13-14 at its premises in Manama, Bahrain. The championship featured ten teams from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar besides the host country Bahrain.
To add glamour to the championship, the Club invited Joaquim Carvalho, a former Indian field hockey player and coach together with his wife Mrs Vandana Rao, a former athlete who represented India in 1984 and 1988 Olympics, as Chief Guests to grace the occasion. Incidentally, both Joaquim and Vandana were awarded the Arjuna Award by the Indian Government in recognition of their outstanding sports achievement for the country.
The games were played on a league-cum-knockout basis with the top four qualifying for the semifinals. Total ten teams participated in this championship. Kuwait Hockey fielded two teams namely A and B, which consisted of players from Kuwait Independents Hockey and KOC Green. Kuwait Hockey A captained by Saqib Ajmal put up an impressive performance losing in the semi finals to the eventual winners Qatar Wanderers by a narrow 2 -1 margin. Both, Team A and B of Kuwait Hockey was well appreciated by the large and enthusiastic crowd. Kanishka P. Rajapaksha (Kani) of Kuwait Hockey A was adjudged the Best Goalkeeper of the tournament for his courageous keeping. Salman Alam from Indian Public School Salmiya Kuwait was the youngest player in the tournament.
The Chief Guest congratulated the Indian Club for achieving the centenary milestone and organizing the tournament successfully, thus keeping the spirit of hockey alive in the Gulf.
The Club General Secretary Cassius Pereira thanked all the teams for participating in this championship and for sharing in the centenary celebrations. The organizer Sudhakar Seetharaman had a word of praise for the Kuwait Clubs for fielding four teams in the championship. Bernard Fernandes, on behalf of Kuwait Independents presented a Memento to the Indian Club and thanked the organizers for inviting Kuwait Hockey to this hockey extravaganza.
For details and updates on upcoming hockey developments, please email KIH on kihockey@hotmail.com or contact Nicholas Reveredo on 97297599 , Frank on 99756322, Trevor on 97255619.
The Kuwait Independents Hockey (KIH) group is now available online on Facebook.
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