THE Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) is aiming to host the 2017 edition of the PAHF indoor championships, with a real eye to securing a more firm footing on the international stage.
With the tournament suffering a delay in the announcement of a host nation, the GHB through president Philip Fernandes and his executive, is looking to seize the opportunity before it closes this month-end.

He told the media, “We have the Pan American Championships and we are looking at that as a possibility. That would be in 2017 so there isn’t an awful lot of time and some preparation and improvement works to the gymnasium would have to be done.”
“We do host our Diamond Mineral international club tournament but we are talking about something with more national teams from all the Americas (like) Argentina, Canada and the United States etc.,” the GHB boss confirmed recently.
However, he is already of the view that the decision for this does not lie solely with the GHB. “We are hoping to discuss it with the Director of Sports and maybe find a way that Guyana can in fact be considered as a host.”

And should Guyana be considered as a host the venue for the one of the Western Hemisphere’s biggest tournaments, the spin-off benefits would be phenomenal, of course, apart from saving the GHB the cost of taking two teams abroad.
“In addition, we would be able to raise the profile of the game locally; expose all of our young players and our new players and even spectators and fans to top level hockey at an indoor tournament, a Pan American tournament,” Fernandes beamed.
The Veteran player contended, “We would also establish Guyana as an international host so whenever we are to approach the international body for funding and artificial surface and that sort of thing; once land is made available and we are to approach the federations for funding then it would go very well to show that Guyana has a capability, a track record of hosting internationals and has done a good job at it.”