Ghana Ready to Celebrate 2007 World Youth Marathon

In May of every year, the global hockey family celebrates it dynamic youth with a series of activities that culminate in what has come to be know as the ‘Global Youth Marathon’. The event is celebrated in virtually all World Hockey member countries with special events tailored for the specific countries but in line with a chosen theme.

The theme chosen for the 2007 celebrations is ‘Hockey, a sport for everybody everywhere’. The philosophy behind the choice of the theme is that hockey as a sport for all, can be played everywhere and seeks to bring to the fore that a group of people do not need to have an expensive state-of-the-art synthetic pitch to play. Additionally, it seeks to introduce the dimensions of the game that are not known to many especially, newcomers by indulging in a deviation from the conventional 11-a-side game. The 5-a-side, 6-a-side and 8-a-side games will be played in Ghana on surfaces such as open spaces in residential areas, car parks, and grassless and bumpy school sports fields that have commonly been used to groom the nations’ hockey talent. Two new dimensions will also be introduced, that is playing on the beach in line with Ghana Sports’ move to introduce competitive beach sports and in the woods with improvised equipment to signify that the game can be played during family recreational outings in the botanical gardens.

The La Salem school field, the Tema Community 3 open space and a bubbling car park in the Dansoman Community will host youth of various ages in mini hockey events. The recreational woods of the Presbyterian Boys’ Secondary School in Legon will host what the organizers have dubbed ‘hockey in the woods’ while in the fishing community of Tema New Town, the organizers will bring the sport to the less endowed who will partner them to demystify the held view that hockey is an expensive sport played by people in the higher echelons of society. The white sands of the busy La Pleasure Beach will host the beach event.

The event will be supervised the GHA team led by the chairman Oko-Nikoi Dzani and co-coordinated by coaches R. Abaidoo and E. Zankoh. It will also involve all the youth trainers of the GHA who will be led by Emmanuel Ahadjie, Louis Tengey and Ebo Arthur.

It is expected that some 300 youth and 50 adults will participate in this year’s event which will enjoy a lot of media coverage before the day and on the day by the GHA’s major media partners.

Interested youth and their parents could contact the event coordinators, Coaches Abaidoo and Zankoh at the National Hockey Pitch.