Hikers Hockey Club were crowned U19 champions after they pummeled Saints U19 in the final by a 6-1 score line as action in the Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company (GT&T) Caribbean Kids Hockey Festival concluded at the National Gymnasium, Mandela Avenue on Sunday.
Jamarj Assanah would open the scoring for the Hikers unit through a third minute right sided strike. He would complete his brace eight minutes later with a well placed strike to the bottom of the net.
The lanky midfielder would complete his hat trick with a neatly taken strike in the 17th minute to lower left hand corner of the goal. Assanah would seal the win as he completed his helmet trick with a 20th minute effort. Leon Bacchus and Aroydy Branford completed the rout with goals in the 12th and 14th minutes respectively. Delmar Ng netted for Saints in the 19th minute. With the win, Hikers collected their first place trophy and medals.
In the earlier U19 semifinal encounters, Hikers defeated Old Fort by a 5-1 margin while Saints edged Combermere Secondary School ‘A’ of Barbados 2-0 on penalty kicks after regulation time found both sides locked at 1-1.
The most valuable player (MVP) of this division was adjudged to be Assanah.
In the U19 female division which featured only three sides, Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) was crowned champions. Utilizing a round robin format where each side had to play the other twice, GCC defeated Hikers 7-1 and Supermix (a combined team) 8-0 in the opening round. In the second round of games, GCC drew with Hikers 2-2 but defeated Supermix 6-0.
Hikers finished second in the group as they defeated eventual third place finishers Supermix by a 3-0 score line in both of their matchups. Marzana Fiedtkou was adjudged to be the MVP of this division.
Combermere Secondary School ‘C’ was crowned champions of the U16 boys division as they defeated Futuristik Tigers out of Trinidad and Tobago 2-1. Combermere ‘C’ progressed to the final as they defeated GCC 2-1.
Futuristik Tigers booked their berth in the final when they overcame Combermere ‘B’ 2-1. Futuristik Tigers Che Modest was recognized as the division’s MVP.
On the distaff side of the U16 division, Futuristik were crowned the section’s champions as they defeated GCC 2-1 in the final.
Futuristik booked their finals berth following a 6-1 thrashing of Hikers. GCC progressed to the final when they defeated eventual third place finishers Combermere Secondary 3-2. Aaliyah Gordon of GCC was recognized as the section’s MVP.
In the only mixed division of the tournament, Marian Academy was crowned the U13 champions when they overcame Futuristik 2-0 in the final. The Carifesta Avenue side progressed to the final when they defeated Saints 3-0 in the first semifinal matchup. Futuristik sealed their finals berth when they edged eventual third place finishers GCC 2-1 on sudden death penalty strikes as regulation time found both sides locked at 2-2.
Marian Academy’s Rosario Ramsammy was adjudged to be the division’s MVP.
Following the conclusion of the tournament, the respective divisional winners, second and third place finishers were given trophies and medals while each divisional MVP was given a trophy.
The tournament which ran from July 31-August 4 is part of the Guyana Hockey Board’s (GHB) initiative and developmental to get more players involved and exposed to the sport.
