Phase One of 1st Khelo India Women's Hockey (U-16) to commence

The phase one of the first Khelo India Women’s Hockey League (U16) will occur from August 16 to August 23. The decision was taken post the success of the first-ever Khelo India Women’s Hockey League (U-21) held in New Delhi and Lucknow. Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports and Minister of Information and Broadcasting inaugurated the three phased tournament. The U-16 event will mimic the pattern of the U-21 tournament.

A total of 16 teams will be competing in the league. More than 300 players will mark their participation in this phase. Teams will play a total of 56 matches under phase one of the tournament. Major Dhyanchand Stadium in New Delhi will host the phase one along with the scheduled matches. For the three phases, the Sports Authority of India has allotted a total of Rs 53.72 lakhs, which includes prize money of 15,5 lakh.

The matches will begin at 6:30 am, while the last match will start at 5 pm every day. August 19 will be the rest day for the players. The first two phases will follow the round-robin format. The ranking of the teams will be based on the performance in the initial phases. The third phase will comprise of the classification matches in which each team will play atleast three games.

What the former coach of the Men’s Hockey Team had to say:

The former coach of the Men’s Hockey Team, Piyush Kumar Dubey in his statement said, “It is another great step taken by the Khelo India and Hockey India by organising 1st Khelo India Women’s Hockey League Under -16, after completion of the 1st Khelo India Women’s Hockey League U-21 recently.”

“In current scenario there are lot of competition/tournament exposures are in place only for the Senior category but, and specially in Women Hockey at Junior and Sub Junior level they don’t have such numbers of tournaments and competition where they can sharpen, assess their training and capabilities. That’s why initiating such Khelo India League at Sub-junior level definitely going to play a major role in future in terms of Athletes performance and overall development and also make them learn how to handle such competition pressures,” he further added.