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televisionThe 39th Barbados International Hockey Festival is set to get underway on Friday, the penultimate day of the festival, at the Wildey National Hockey Centre with a series of semi-final play-offs set to feature three of the four defending champion teams.
Since the 2023 champions, the New York Islanders, are not sending a team this time, a new women’s champion will be created. Therefore, the University of the West Indies (UWI) Blackbirds will compete with Toronto United for the women’s championship.
However, the semi-finals will determine who will play in the men’s final, with Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) hoping to make it to the championship round and once again be kings of the festival.
In the preliminary rounds of the tournament which began on Monday, the Guyana men’s team performed poorly, losing 0-2 to Total Hockey Club (THC) and 0-1 to UQI.
GCC quickly recovered and won their next two games: A Badd Connection (ABC) (3-0) and Barbados Teachers Union (2-0). They then played to a 0-0 draw with Du Badd.
The first men’s semi-final will be played that day, and it will be an exciting battle on the hockey field between GCC and its rival THC. Similarly, THC’s men’s team is also very strong.
THC already has four wins under their belt and will go into the tournament confident knowing they beat GCC in a preliminary round earlier in the tournament.
The other men’s semi-final between Dubard and ABC is also set to be a blockbuster clash. As two of the top club teams in the local hockey world, both teams have qualified for the final and have a wealth of talented players in their rosters.
The Du Badd mixed team also made it to the semi-finals and will face the strong Hikers for a place in the final. In the second mixed semi-final of the day, the defending champions Rockets have been very confident so far and will be looking to prevent their rivals NY Islanders from reaching the championship final.
Defending Masters champions UWI will face ABC in the semi-finals. When two really good teams, UWI and ABC, meet, it will be a battle to decide which team will win the final.
The other match in the Masters semi-finals is between Old and Drag Down Club and All Stars. Given the excellent performances of these two teams in the preliminaries, it is still hard to predict which team will make it to the final. (AS)
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