Youth ready to Olympic

Twelve hockey teams from around the world will participate in the first Youth Olympic Games held in Singapore from 14-26 August. Six boy’s and six girl’s teams will play 36 matches in total to find the first two Youth Olympic Champions in Hockey.
To be eligible for the hockey tournament of the YOG 2010, athletes must have been born between 1 January 1993 and 31 December 1994.
The girls will start off on Monday 16 August with the opening match between Netherlands and Ireland. The boys’ tournament begins on Tuesday 17th August, Pakistan and Ghana compete in the first match.
Australia (Oceania), Belgium (Europe), Chile (Pan America), Ghana (Africa), Pakistan (Asia), Singapore (Asia) participate in the boys’ competition while Argentina (Pan America), Ireland (Europe), Korea (Asia), Netherlands (Europe), New Zealand (Oceania) and South Africa (Africa) meet up in the girls’ tournament.
Each of the six teams plays each other once in a round robin format to complete five preliminary round games. The top two teams at the end of the preliminary round matches play off in the Gold Medal Match. The 3rd and 4th placed teams play for the Bronze Medal, while the 5th and 6th placed teams meet in the 5th place playoff. The classification matches are played on Tuesday, 23rd August (girls) and Wednesday, 24th August (boys). The Medal Ceremony takes place at the same day as the matches, starting at 10.30pm.
The two tournaments are held in Seng Kang Hockey Stadium the same place where the Singaporean part of Men’s Junior World Cup took place in 2009.
It’s very hard to name a team as a favourite or a medal candidate because especially in youth tournaments surprises are always likely to happen. The 36 matches will become special ones in any way and it will be interesting to see whether the teams whose adults are top in the world will take the medals or a dark horse will reach the top.
The first Youth Olympic Games will definitely become an unforgettable event and experience for all participants.
The FIH tournament micro site www.worldhockey.org/yog will be bringing you extensive coverage of all the action from the first Youth Olympic Games. The site will provide all official information and news from the tournament, keeping you fully up-to-date with the latest scores and league tables. The site will also include written match previews and reports, action photos, video interviews and much more.
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