In Junior Hockey Championship youngsters need to impress

08 September, 2012

The second Junior Men's National Hockey Championship is taking place at Lucknow, where 27 teams are participating. The finals are scheduled to be played on the 9th of September 2012.

UPCOMING YOUNGSTERS from all over the country have been fighting it out for their respective states in the ongoing second Junior Men's National Hockey Championship, which is being played at Guru Gobind Singh Sports College, Lucknow. There are 27 teams that are battling it out to win the elusive trophy. Haryana is the defending champion.

These 27 teams were divided into eight pools, where the top team of each pool will reach the quarter-finals stage. Syed Ali, former Indian Hockey player in the NNIS video with the story says, “We will get to see talent from the quarter-finals stage.” The semi-finals and the finals would be played on the 8^th and 9^th September respectively.

The former player also agrees that the quality of Hockey has dipped at a tremendous rate. He further adds in the video that there is a need to work on these youngsters at the junior level and if these juniors play in the future for the senior team, we will be in a better position. Youngsters need to come out and impress with their performance in the championship if they are to be considered for the selection of the senior team.

M. Valmiki, a player from Maharastra says, “We came for the nationals here. We came to win here.” It is not only Valmiki who wants to win the tournament and earn a name for themselves. Other states' players would also want to be crowned as champions.