THE 16th edition of the Diamond Mineral Water International Indoor Hockey Festival gets underway today at Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) on Homestretch Avenue.

The festival was birthed from the idea of Joseph ‘Reds’ Perreira, who, upon visiting Guyana in 2003, met with executives of the Guyana Hockey Board (GHB) and encouraged them to stage an annual international hockey festival.

‘Reds’, being a huge proponent of Sports Tourism, thought that the Guyanese sporting bodies needed to do more to attract foreign athletes to these shores.

The GHB took up the challenge and secured the volunteer service of former national hockey player, Troy Hugh Peters, to be the Tournament Coordinator.

Eighteen years later, the Festival has grown into one of the premier indoor hockey events in the region and attracts top club teams and players from the Pan American region.

Over the years the festival has had its challenges and missed years due to renovations to the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in 2012 and then again during the restrictive COVID-19 times.

This year, the mighty Queen’s Park male contingent returns to compete in the Men’s Veteran Over-35 and the Guinness Masters Over-45 divisions.

The Over-35s will be the first foreign side on show as they take on the Antonio’s Hickers at 19:30hrs on the opening night.

Trinidad Police are set to debut in this edition with a large male and female contingent. The TT Police men will be on show for the final match of the evening tonight as they take on the recent GTT National Indoor Champions, Bounty GCC.

The Police ladies similarly will face local national champs, GBTI GCC Tigers, in the TLC Ladies division at 20:10hrs. The tournament will feature 18 teams, including six from overseas.

In addition, four players from Canada and two from the USA will be on show as guest players among the local sides, adding to the international flair of the festival.

Diamond Mineral Water has been the mainstay of the festival and has been the title sponsor since its inception in 2004.

Local freight-forwarding company, TLC Guyana Inc., which is the sponsor of the women’s division, is new to the sport locally, while Guinness, more popular with football, has been the welcome sponsor of the Masters division.

All matches are being played at Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and begin at 18:00hrs from today, 15:00hrs tomorrow, 13:00hrs on Saturday and 11:00hrs on Sunday.