`We will put our best foot forward to make Pan American Hockey Championships a good show’ –GHB President
At head table: From left, PAHF Tournament Director, Adrian Dellamattia; PAHF Events Coordinator,Laura Macchiotti; GHB President, Phillip Fernandes and sports journalist/commentator, ,Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira, who chaired yesterday’s proceedings (Delano Williams photo)
At head table: From left, PAHF Tournament Director, Adrian Dellamattia; PAHF Events Coordinator,Laura Macchiotti; GHB President, Phillip Fernandes and sports journalist/commentator, ,Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira, who chaired yesterday’s proceedings (Delano Williams photo)

PRESIDENT of the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB), Phillips Fernandes reaffirmed that nothing but the best was put forth for Guyana’s hosting of the Pan American Indoor Hockey Championships, which begins tomorrow, even as the Board came under much praise from the overseas team managers and officials for the facility and hospitality in Guyana.

“We will put our best foot forward to make it a good tournament and a good show,” Fernandes declared yesterday at a press briefing held at the Sleep-In Hotel and Casino, Church Street.

“We have put in the infrastructure as best we could; they’ve been some upgrades to our facility. We’ve done our best to make it as comfortable for our guests. We know the facility is a bit hot, and we’ve done our best to try to improve that situation.
Also, we are going to be making every effort to have live streaming so that we could market the event internationally.”
This will be the first time that Guyana will be hosting a hockey tournament of such international magnitude and stakeholders are eager to leave a lasting impression that bodes well for the country.

“This is a very important event for the Pan American Hockey Federation, especially for Guyana, it’s the biggest event we’ve ever tried to have here in Guyana and it’s an honour to have been selected by PAHF to host it here in Guyana; we are very excited and enthusiastic,” Fernandes shared.
Fernandes reminded that it could not be possible without the support of the many sponsors that came on board to support the tournament “in a very big way”.
“We would like to acknowledge the fact that we have some strong sponsors, we have a lot of gold sponsors, companies like Exxon Mobil, GTT, Banks DIH, John Fernandes Limited, Bounty Supermarket, while we have our silver sponsors like Republic Bank; Sterling Products with their Igloo brand. We hope to make it an event worthy of their contribution,” he noted.
Seven female teams and six male teams have been arriving in Guyana to take part in the tournament which will be held at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, beginning from 10am tomorrow.

The home court advantage will give Guyana much benefits, including being able to field both a male and a female team, for the first time ever at the tournament. Though this will be Guyana’s second time fielding a male team, this will actually be the first year that the country will be represented in the female competition.
Another benefit coming out of our hosting will be the Guyanese players having the chance to train and familiarize themselves with the exact surface that they will be playing the competition on.
“Usually we play on grass and then we go and compete on artificial turf which is very, very tough. So our teams are very keen and excited that they could play and practice in the very same venue where the competition will be played,” Fernandes explained.
The GHB recently imported an indoor plastic tile floor, similar to what is used in North America for almost all indoor sports, which was laid at the CASH. A move that has definitely pleased all of the incoming teams as well, as they had nothing but compliments about the facility.

“The venue is fantastic, the floor is superb. The people are very kind, treating us excellent. We’ve been very impressed with everything,” commented a representative from Uruguay.
His sentiments were echoed by other representatives from Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Trinidad and Tobago.
PAHF Events Coordinator, Laura Macchiotti, also chimed in with praises for the GHB’s hosting of the event.

“I want to thank you for hosting the tournament. It’s very important for PAHF to have different countries and not always the same one, so small hockey countries too can showcase big events like this and spread hockey throughout the country and continent. I know that this has been a big effort for you, not only for the finances.
We know that small federations struggle to get people involved to run a tournament, but you did it quite well, we have a very nice venue and we have everything we need to have a very good event,” Macchiotti said.

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