GUYANA’s hockey team to the Paragon Indoor Hockey Championships recorded gold in the female U16 and U21 classes on Sunday.

The team returned home through the Eugene Correia Airport on Sunday evening medal laden and in high spirits.

On the team’s return, president of the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) Phillip Fernandes commended the performance of both units.

“They started out a little bit tentative but each match that they played, they seemed to be more relaxed, more in control and more dominant of the games and I was very pleased with the performance.”

“The end shows the result of winning both categories” he added, saying, “there is a nice, young junior program over here of under 14’s players who look up to these girls and the success of these girls can only encourage young girls and boys to play the game as well.”

Fernandes explained that a lot of the U16 girls made up the U21 unit, adding that there were only a few players in that unit that were above 16 years old.

He added that for their age, the girls performed creditably.

Under-16 captain Sarah Klautky contended that, “as expected, our first game wasn’t our best, it was great how we all quickly adjusted and worked together and it wasn’t a situation where only one person fought for the win, it was a whole team effort.”

She added that the quality of hockey experienced there was high and that coming back home, the girls are eager to show what they have learnt.

“We are happy to represent Guyana and the youths of Guyana and especially field hockey because it’s not given much recognition because it’s something to do,” Klautky said.

Meanwhile, U21 captain Makeda Harding added, “I think we played well, we played better than we expected and it was good to play in the U21 category this year because last year we didn’t get to and this year we came out ontop.”