Bhubaneswar, India: No less than 31 players (see list below) currently participating in the FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup Bhubaneswar 2021 were involved in the last Youth Olympic Games staged in 2018, including four team captains, namely Vivek Sagar Prasad (India), Facundo Zarate (Argentina), Gracjan Jarzynski (Poland) and Akhimullah Anuar (Malaysia).
The hockey format played at the Youth Olympic Games is Hockey5s, which, as the name suggests, is played with 5 athletes per team. It is particularly known for its non-stop end to end action, its higher number of goals in average and its shorter match duration (2 x 10 minutes).
Hockey5s was the most attended sport at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games with 200’000 spectators!
"I have very fond memories of the Youth Olympic Games in 2018. I was quite overwhelmed when I arrived in Buenos Aires as it was my first experience at a multi-discipline event especially as the team Captain. It was a great learning yet very enjoyable experience playing the Hockey5s format and we ended up on the podium with the Silver medal. It was undoubtedly one of the best tournaments of my formative years in international hockey", India’s captain Vivek Sagar Prasad said.
Poland’s captain Gracjan Jarzynski stated: “Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires was a fantastic experience for me and my teammates. It was a great opportunity to play against teams that we have not played before like India, Malaysia or Argentina. Here in Bhubaneswar we meet again - just on a bigger pitch :) I believe that playing hockey5s helped me to improve my hitting technique, elimination and defending skills.”
“We have understood the benefits of Hockey5s in countries where hockey is in the early stages of its growth for some time now, with the smaller pitch size, simplified rules and less players, meaning hockey is more accessible to start playing. But to now have evidence of the role Hockey5s can play in the elite hockey pathway of athletes in established hockey countries such as India, Argentina, Malaysia, Canada and Poland is fantastic, and shows the crossover in skills between the shorter version of our sport and the full size format”, said FIH Sport Director and double Olympian Jon Wyatt.
In order to further boost the development of hockey globally through Hockey5s, FIH has created an FIH Hockey5s World Cup - with the inaugural edition planned in 2024 in Oman - and, in the near future, a Hockey5s World Tour.
Furthermore, the ‘FIH Hockey5s Lausanne 2022’ event is scheduled on 4-5 June next year and will involve, amongst others, the men’s teams of India, Malaysia and Poland.
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List of the 31 FIH Odisha Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup Bhubaneswar 2021 players who participated in the 2018 Youth Olympic Games:
Argentina
- HERNANDO Nehuen (GK)
- ZARATE Facundo
- MARCUCCI Tadeo
- IBARRA Ignacio
- GARRONE Gaspar
- SARTO Facundo
- CABAÑA Agustin (GK)
Canada
- DHILLON Roopkanwar
- CHILDS Rowan
India
- CHAUHAN Prashant (GK)
- RAHUL KUMAR Rajbhar
- SINGH Maninder
- SANJAY
- CHIRMAKO Sudeep
- PAWAN (GK)
- MOIRANGTHEM Rabichandra
- PRASAD Vivek Sagar
Malaysia
- AHIR Hamiz (GK)
- SAUPI Shahrul (GK)
- AZAHAR Amirul
- ISHAK Arif
- MAT Syarman
- KAMARUDDIN Kamarulzaman
- MOHARAM Muhibddin
- ROSDI Firadus
- ANUAR Akhimullah
Poland
- GEBLER Jakub (GK)
- BEMBENEK Tomasz
- JARZYNSKI Gracjan
- CHUMENCZUK Jakub
- BEMBENEK Eryk
More information about the FIH Odisha Hockey Men's Junior World Cup Bhubaneswar 2021 can be found on the official website by clicking here.
The Junior World Cup action continues on Tuesday (30 November) with the first set of classification matches to decide 9-16th place being played. South Africa (3rd place Pool A) take on Canada (4th place Pool B) in the first match of the day at 10:30 Indian Standard Time (UTC +05.30). Then Pakistan (3rd Pool D) face USA (4th Pool C) at 13:30 before Poland (3rd Pool B) take on Chile (4th Pool A) at 16:30. The final match of the day sees Korea (3rd Pool C) face Egypt (4th Pool D) at 19:30.
Quarter final action takes place on Wednesday (1 December) when Germany will play Spain at 10:30; Netherlands face Argentina at 13:30; France versus Malaysia at 16:30; and Belgium will play India at 19:30.
To see the complete match schedule, click here.
We are pleased to confirm that the first matches being played between now and Tuesday 30 November will be broadcast to our global audience live and free of charge via the Watch.Hockey app. From 1–5 December, the Watch.Hockey app will be live streaming matches free of charge to all territories outside of India, Maldives, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, locations which are subject to existing broadcast rights agreements.
For more information about FIH and hockey in general, please download the Watch.Hockey app or follow the FIH social media channels - Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – and website.
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