YES! I was in awe with the organising and competition of the just concluded Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey Tournament which concluded on Sunday 11, 2011 (a four-day tournament) at the National Gymnasium.
For the very first time I ventured out to grace  the tournament with my presence and hands down ,it was one of the greatest sports events I have ever attended and I have many reasons:
First of all, admission was free.

From observations, I saw a wide cross-section of local sports fans in attendance and I mean persons with all the different textures of hair…The same applied for all the team members.
Of course, there were persons cheering for their favourite teams, but overall it was a well behaved crowd.
Comfort was to the highest peak one can imagine and in my personal opinion, it was an entirely different breed of the human species I was among.
I vividly remember witnessing two players rolling out a filled trash bin and replacing it with an empty one and persons were simply using the bin to have their personal items discarded.

In my book, that says a great lot when I used the term “a different breed of sports fans.” During breaks I also saw persons using the trash bin outside of the stadium and I am sure there were items left around the sitting area, but it is my belief that it was at a minimum.

During the last day of competition I happened to be sitting in a particular section where I realised that there were some  prominent business people of society and again it was my opinion that they are very down-to-earth persons.

I happened to have a brief conversation with one Mr. Shuffler and Mr. Dwayne Scott whom I was introduced to as committee members or members of the Guyana Hockey Federation and I have to say that they were very forthcoming with information I needed and they made good representatives of the sports body.

As for the sport, hockey, I was very impressed with the performances and sportsmanship displayed by the athletes and it was amazing to witness the wonders a hockey stick does in competition along with the speed of an athlete as the driving force of the stick.

Kudos to the respective  teams for their participation and also for the overall winners. The highlight of one of the most anticipated finals had to be between the Old Fort and GCC men’s final which I believe had almost everyone on the edge of their seats.
Powerful final it was.