THE Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) has selected 16 females and 17 males to participate in the upcoming qualifiers for the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games 2018, being held in Kingston, Jamaica.

The qualifiers are being held at the Mona Complex in Kingston from November 5-12 and will feature both male and female competitions simultaneously.

As a result of the country’s absence from international outdoor competition recently, Guyana finds both its teams vying for the final two places in the CAC Games with those spots going to the top two finishers of the qualifiers.

The Men’s team last competed in international competition when they narrowly missed silver medals in the Pan Am Challenge held in Peru in 2015. In this qualifier, they will face challenges from hosts Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Panama.

The Women last competed in the CAC games of 2014 in Vera Cruz, Mexico, where they finished sixth of eight teams. Qualifier hosts Jamaica will be looking to avenge their penalty shootout loss to Guyana at the last games, while Bermuda, Guatemala, Panama and Puerto Rico have also entered the competition.

Matches will be streaming live on www.panamhockey.org

The men’s team features, Jamarj Assanah, Aroydy Branford, Rayon Branford, Hilton Chester, Marvin Dannett, Robert France, Jael Gaskin, Randy Hope, Kareem McKenzie, Mark Sargeant, Meshach Sargeant, Medroy Scotland, Dwayne Scott, Orland Semple, Andrew Stewart, David Williams and Steven Xavier. The manager is Hubert Forrester and the coach is Robert Fernandes.

The ladies have Latoya Fordyce as manager and Philip Fernandes as coach. The players are Maria Munroe, Shebiki Baptiste, Latacia Chung, Minsodia Culpepper, Ashley DeGroot, Nicole Eastman, Kerensa Fernandes, Marisha Fernandes, Marzana Feidtkou, Tamala Glenn, Aliuyah Gordon, Briawna Gordon, Bushani Kaladeen, Ulrica Sutherland, Trisha Woodroffe and Gabriella Xavier.

The team departed yesterday morning via Fly Jamaica, one of their main sponsors for the event.