New Delhi, May 3 (Hindustan Times). The stage is set for aspiring young hockey players from across India to compete in the prestigious 13th Hockey India Sub-Junior Women’s National Championship 2023, which is set to begin on Thursday, 4th May 2023 in Rourkela, Odisha. A total of 28 teams will vie for the top honors in the 11-day tournament with the final of the competition to be played on May 14, 2023. All the matches will be played at the world class Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium.
The participating teams are divided into eight pools. Pool A consists of Hockey Haryana, Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu and Hockey Tripura, while Pool B consists of Hockey Jharkhand, Hockey Bengal and Hockey Uttarakhand. Pool C consists of Hockey Uttar Pradesh, Hockey Chhattisgarh and Delhi Hockey while Pool D consists of Hockey Madhya Pradesh, Assam Hockey and Hockey Himachal.
Hockey Mizoram, Hockey Association of Odisha, Kerala Hockey and Hockey Rajasthan have been placed in Pool E, while Hockey Punjab, Manipur Hockey, Gujarat Hockey and Hockey Andhra Pradesh have been included in Pool F. Hockey Chandigarh, Hockey Bihar, Telangana Hockey and Goa have been clubbed together in Pool G, while Hockey Maharashtra, Hockey Karnataka, Le Puducherry Hockey, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu Hockey will compete in Pool H.
Talking about their chances of defending the title, Hockey Haryana coach Azad Singh Malik said, “We recently conducted a training camp where we honed our defence, attack, set-play and other aspects of our game. Worked on the aspects. So, we are aiming to do well in the tournament and yes, we are confident of defending our title this time as well.”
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Hockey coach Jitendra Singh Bhadauria talked about his team’s preparation and said, “We are all well prepared for the Junior Women’s National Championship and will enter the tournament as winners or at least runners-up.” After seven days of pool matches, the quarter-finals will be held on May 11, 2023, while the semi-finals will be played on May 13, 2023. The medal matches have been scheduled for 14 May 2022.
