BY ROMULUS HUTA
THE 2018 Samlimsan High School Hockey League will get underway during the first week of May.
Nihal Seneviratne, the president of the Solomon Islands Hockey Federation (SIHF) confirmed yesterday.
Seneviratne said they are targeting the league to commence on the first week of May.
More than 20 schools are earmarked for this year’s league.
“The league is part of the stepping stone since the revival of the sport in 2015 where the national team made a successful debut at the PNG 2015 Pacific Games, World League Round 1 in Fiji 2016 and the 2017 Intercontinental Cup held in Sydney, Australia.”
Seneviratne added that revitalisation of hockey in Solomon Islands had taken huge strides and one of its successful outcomes was selection of the youth teams from last year’s league who will represent the country in the upcoming youth qualifiers.
The qualifiers will take place in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea (PNG) from April 25 to 29. Solomon Islands will be represented by both the men and the women’s team and they will depart Honiara on May 23.
The Youth Olympic Games qualifiers for Oceania have two men and three women qualification spots respectively.
This mean the two winners for the men’s and top three winners in the women’s category will qualify to take part in the Youth Olympic Games due to take place in Argentina later this year.
Meanwhile, in related development, the PNG Hockey Federation is determined to host the first-ever Under 18 Qualifiers in Port Moresby, according to reports gathered from the Post Courier.
And with only a week to go, Local Host Organising Committee and the Port Moresby Hockey Association are working around the clock to ensure all venues are ready before the event.
“We are two weeks away and we are doing everything we can with the very little support we have in terms of funding,” LHOC chairman Thomas Kahai said.
He said the preparation on the venues is going good and they are grateful to have the POM Hockey Association, the clubs and member who have provided the workforce voluntarily week in week out to see the event delivered successfully.
“We would like to encourage and see more support to the event and for the future of the code as this is the Youth(U18) Olympic Qualifier,” Kahai added.
