Junior Men Hockey Championship from Sept 1

Lucknow: As many as 27 teams from across the country, including defending champions Haryana, would be seen in action in the nine-day 2nd HI Junior Men Hockey Championship beginning September 1.

Organising secretary Dr Ram Prakash Singh said this was for the first time during the last many years when a national championship was being organised in Lucknow.

Selection of probables for the India camp for the future junior international events like World Championships would be done during the championship to be held at the Major Dhyan Chand Astro Turf Stadium here.

As many as 27 teams from across the country, including defending champions Haryana, would be seen in action.

Hockey India has appointed Col Balbir, Syed Ali and Thoiba Singh as three selectors for the event. Bengal's HS Sokhi has been named tournament director, while Lucknow's Avinash Srivastava would be the umpire's manager.

The 1st edition of the championship was organised in December last at Pune. All the 27 teams, who have been divided in eight different pools, would play league matches first.

One team from each team will qualify for the quarter-finals to be played on September 7. The two semi-finals are slated to be played on September 8, where as the final will be played on September 9.

The participating teams include, Haryana, Assam, Bengal, Odisha, Manipur, Tripura, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, SAI Bhopal, MP Hockey Association (MPHA), Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Pudicherry, Rajasthan and hosts Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh, who failed to make it to the quarter-finals last year with one win and one loss, has been clubbed with Jharkhand and Delhi in Pool D.

RP Singh informed that around 50 coaches from across all parts of the country would also be participating in the 1st FIH Hockey India High Performance Coaching Camp to be held from September 4-9.

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