Hockey5s made its debut on the international stage at YOG, Nanjing, China. Running from the 14th to the 27th of August, the competition saw 10 men’s and 10 women’s teams from 17 different countries participate in this exciting and dynamic format.
And it did not disappoint. Players, coaches and spectators, including recently retired hockey superstar Teun de Nooijer, our President - Leandro Negre along with the IOC President Thomas Bach, all enjoyed the spectacular action of the new 5-a-side format.
Players from around the globe told us that they found the game different, faster and extremely skilful. “5’s is so fast, you need fitness and speed, and there are boards, not like in 11’s, you can score from anywhere, that’s a really good advantage” Lala Ravatu, Captain, Fiji. “A good goal scorer can score from anywhere, so you have to pay attention and have good reactions” Maximiliano Mendez Falcon, Mexico, commented pitch side.
At FIH we are excited to sit down and review the experience from both a fan and player point of view as we continue our work to design a new small-sided game. This new entertainment-focussed game will be an evolution of Hockey5s designed to appeal to youth and generate new hockey playing nations. We will present our road-map and teaser at the FIH Congress in November this year.
With the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing bringing hockey’s young talent to the forefront, we are running a series of articles on our website where we meet with some of the rising stars of the game.
We already know from the number and breadth of entries into Hockey World League Round 1, just how popular our sport is becoming, but perhaps it takes the sight of 180 teenagers proudly representing their respective countries to really drive home the fact that hockey is becoming a sport for the 21st century and beyond.
In the articles we will get to meet upcoming talent from all over the world including a 14-year old from a developing African nation who until recently played with a borrowed stick but has since gone on to score against one of the sport’s top tier nations. We also meet a member of Japanese YOG team who had only nine days to prepare for the competition but who went on to make the semi-finals.
China celebrate their gold medal - credit Xinhau
