The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Syed Ahmed memorial hockey tournament from today

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Syed Ahmed memorial hockey tournament from today

Hockey Correspondent

Chennai: The inaugural edition of Syed Ahmed memorial hockey tournament was launched on Wednesday at a function by the former Olympian and captain, Dhanraj Pillay. A dozen teams are taking part in the event beginning at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Friday.

Lauding the effort to perpetuate the memory of an outstanding centre forward from Tamil Nadu, Dhanraj reitereated why this city was special for him. He listed the 1995 SAF Games hockey final against Paksitan as a memorable point of his career.

Dhanraj has offered mementos for all the players of the winning team and promised to raise the prize money by Rs. 50,000 for the next event.

Earlier, Olympian Muneer Sait, recalled his long association with Syed Ahmed and the matches they played together for the State and universities.

Another Olympian, Mohammad Riaz, recounted his school days in the Madrasa-I-Azam where Syed Ahmed coached budding players, several of whom have donned the State colours. He hoped that more and more tournaments would come up to serve as the launching pad for the youngsters to reach higher echelons in the sport.

Winner’s prize

Of the 12 teams in the fray, ICF, IOB, Indian Bank and Southern Railway are seeded directly into the quarterfinals. The winner will get a prize money of Rs. 25,000, while the second and third placed outfits will receive Rs.15,000 and 10,000 respectively.

Former Southern Railway star, Mohammad Nabi will be the tournament director. Rehan Ahmed, son of Syed Ahmed, the organising secretary, welcomed the gathering and detailed the features of the tournament.

Dhanraj later lamented over the dwindling number of tournaments at the National level and spoke on the prevailing areas of uncertainty consequent to the formation of Hockey India and the need to have a foreign coach when abundant material was available within the country.

The opening match will be between The Hindu and Chepauk Youngsters.

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