The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Hyderabad to host National championship

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 26, 2005

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Sport - Hockey

Hyderabad to host National championship

By Our Hockey Correspondent

CHENNAI, FEB. 25. The National hockey championship for the Rangaswamy Cup will be conducted at Hyderabad with the support of the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh from March 16 to 29, according to K. Jothikumaran, Secretary, Indian Hockey Federation. The last edition was held in 2000 at Jammu, where Indian Airlines retained the trophy against Indian Railways. As many as 45 teams participated in the competition.

Since then, the championship, a high priority event in the IHF calendar, was left in the limbo for one reason or the other. The official explanation was the commitment of India to playing in several international tournaments as preparation for the Olympic Games in Athens.

But critics viewed the long gap in conducting the event annually to the indifference of the administration. The issue was discussed at some length in the general body meeting at Hyderabad along with the offer of the sponsors. There were several suggestions about the format and conducting the competition in four or five zones before assembling the qualifiers at one centre for the final round.

Excellent facilities

Originally, Mumbai was identified as venue and then Delhi before the end of April. But now the IHF, following the success of the PHL, has opted for Hyderabad where facilities available are excellent.

Thirty-nine member associations and 14 institutional units are in the fray this time. The institutional teams are programmed to play a qualifying round in New Delhi. The top four will proceed to Hyderabad for the pre-quarterfinal league.

The 39-member association teams are to be grouped into six pools and two from each will make the pre-quarterfinal round of 16. Then the 16 qualifiers will again be divided into four pools of four teams each and the top team in each pool moves into the semifinals.

With the completion of the senior Nationals next month, the IHF can take comfort in conducting the National championships for all age groups at Jabalpur, Imphal and Vizag, where the junior edition is in progress.

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