It was a day of firsts for the Bahrain Hockey Association as it hosted its biggest ever hockey event. The tournament featured the first ever participants from a Saudi Arabia-based team – Dadabhai Saudi – and it brought together the largest number of current and former internationals that a Bahrain hockey event has ever seen.
The Bahrain Hockey Association (BHA) has been busy building the sport across the kingdom over the past few months. All this promotional activity came together for the Bahrain Hockey 6s tournament which took place a couple of months ago, at the beginning of November.
The guest of honour was Jude Felix, an Olympian and former coach and captain of the India national hockey team. The event was presided over by renowned FIH umpire Raghu Prasad, who is no stranger to international events having umpired at the highest level of hockey competition, including the 2012 Olympics and the 2014 World Cup.
The tournament was held at St Christopher’s School, Isa Twon in Bahrain and was organised by Jude D’Souza of the BHA. Abdulrahman Askar, general secretary of the Bahrain Olympic Association was also on hand to see how the sport is being received across the country.
A total of 12 teams from Asia, Oman and Saudi Arabia, with 150 participants took part in the tournament, which was run as a 6-a-side event, with four pools.
The top-ranked teams in each pool progressed to a semi-final, while the second ranked teams in each pool contested the Plate. The eventual winners were UTSC Oman, who beat Wanderers Qatar in an exciting final.
Dadabhai Saudi won the Plate, beating the Hungry Hamours Bahrain. Ronald Lloyd of the Hungry Hamours was named Best Player, while Asim Dawood of the Oman Veterans was voted Best Goalkeeper and Charlotte Axtell of the Bahrain Hawks Juniors was Young Player of the Tournament.
Commercially, the event attracted more than 10 sponsors and was covered in both the national and international press. With an eye to grassroots development, D’Souza organised a series of hockey clinics for young players from St Christopher’s Senior School prior to the main event.
D’Souza explained that the tournament is another step along the way to promoting hockey in Bahrain and raising the levels of participation so that it can become a serious contender on the international stage.
In the past few months, the Kingdom has organised games, test matches, coaching and playing workshops and talks by guest speakers.
Earlier in the year, the BHA hosted a visit by former Pakistan hockey captain, Olympian and World Cup winner Ahmed Alam, who gave an inspirational talk and also discussed BHA’s plans for a Youth Hockey Programme.
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