Pan American Indoor Hockey Cups..Trinidad Men and USA women cop Gold medal

Oct 22, 2017 Sports, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...omen-cop-gold-medal/

– Guyana men fourth, women sixth

The 7th Pan American indoor hockey championships being hosted in Guyana at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) culminated in superb fashion as USA women usurped their neighbours and rivals Canada as the 2017 champions, while low ranked Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) men played unbeaten in their 6 games to replace Canada as men Champions.
T&T began this tournament as the third lowest ranked men’s team but an extensive training and development programme as described by forward Akim Toussaint, was the main reason for their success. In the men’s final, T&T that had defeated Argentina 3-0 during the group round robin stage, added insult to injury with a 7-0 thrashing of the men in blue in the final.
Toussaint along with Mickell Pierre scored two goals each, while Solomon Eccles, James Marcus and Aiden De Gannes scored one each to complete the route of the Spanish speaking nation.
Toussaint explained his euphoria as, “A very exciting feeling, we knew we had the potential to do as best as we can and we did show that our preparation was the best and we played every game as a final.”
T &T will be featuring in the International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) World Cup in Berlin, Germany next year, which will be their second appearance in this tournament, Toussaint explained the importance of this for the sport in his homeland, “This means a lot for T&T hockey, we’ve been to the World Cup once in 2007 in Austria and now it has been 10 years since we last featured and we are very happy to be going again.”
In the women’s division final, USA edged Argentina 2-1. This game was closely contested with all the goals coming in the last quarter of the match. Katie Gerzabek put the United States ahead in the 31st minute before Emma Yanzi of Argentina equalized three (3) minutes later. But a penalty stroke, which was awarded to the US just a minute after the equalizer, was superbly converted by Ali Campbell, who was very animated post match.
“I wouldn’t be able to be in that position (taking the penalty) without my teammates, the incredible fight that we have given this entire tournament has made me outstandingly proud of every single one of these girls,” an elated Campbell said to Kaieteur Sport after her team’s victory.
Meanwhile, Guyana women finished sixth and the men failed in their bid to retain their bronze medal title after losing to Canada 5-2 in the third place playoff.