AS part of its fund-raising drive, the Western Union-branded Hikers Hockey Club Junior Programme will host its first annual indoor junior tournament at the National Gymnasium on Mandela Avenue beginning today at 10:00 h, with the James Service Centre-sponsored Under-13 category.
The tournament, which is a ‘Four-a-side small goal’ event, is expected to feature six categories, namely Schools and Under-13 categories, mixed teams along with Under-16 and U-21 for both male and female teams, with St Stanislaus College ‘B’ team who won the Guyana Hockey Board’s School tournament last year expected to compete.
They should expect stiff competition from newcomers School of the Nations as well as Queen’s College, North Ruimveldt Multilateral and Marian Academy teams, while the other category will see hosts Hikers matching their skills against the likes of GCC, Old Fort and Western Dragons. All clubs are expected to field several teams in each category.
The Hikers Under-13 attack will be led by Makeda Harding and Akheame McDonald,  with the outstanding talents of Macaela Harding, Aroydy Branford and Andrew Stewart pressing for glory in the Under-16 category.
The Under-21 challenge will be led by Hikers’ standouts Renee James, Jamarj Assanah, Rayon Branford and Travon Younge.
The GCC teams are expected to be led by the Woodroffe siblings, Dominique and Samuel, in the Under-13 division, with their Under-16 teams being led by Aliyah Gordon, Dacia Woodroffe, Mark Sargeant and Mortimer Stewart,  while the Xavier siblings of Alysa, Gabriella and Steven and the Fiedtkou sisters, Marzana and Talia, are expected to spearhead the Under-21 challenge, with Old Fort being led by Under-21 standouts Kevin Melville and Richard Helligar.
After the Under-13 competition, the Global Technology-sponsored Schools tournament will take place while the Under-16 event gets under way tomorrow from 10:00 h, with the Woodpecker Products-sponsored Under-21 competitions following immediately.
There will be a special ‘SKILLAXE’ Challenge before the two Under-21 finals tomorrow afternoon, where contestants will have one minute to demonstrate any freestyle hockey skills and the winner will be chosen by the crowd.
Food and drinks will be on sale and the presentation ceremony is scheduled for 16:30 h tomorrow.