Bhopal: After successfully hosting the first Hockey Sub Junior Men Academy National Championship, the SS Chauhan led govt inaugurated the first Hockey Indian Junior Men Academy National Championship today. The Urban development minister Bhupendra Singh inaugurated the championship at 11 am being held at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in the capital. The SAI regional director, Bhopal was the chief guest of the event. The championship will commence today from 3:00 pm onwards.
As per schedule 28, academy teams from across the country are participating in the championship. The championship is held under the joint aegis of Hockey India and the Department of Sports and Youth Welfare will be played on the basis of league matches. The Championship forms to be a golden chance for aspiring hockey players whose performance would have a chance for Olympian Syed Ali and Asian Medallist Rajneesh Mishra championship. Nearly 550 players as well as supporting staff arrived in Bhopal on Sunday. The teams are divided into eight pools and the top team in each pool will touch quarter-finals. Four matches would be played per day which would sum up to 32 matches overall. After six days of pool matches, the quarter-finals will be played on October 24th and the teams would clash for the semis on October 26th and the final tug would be staged on October 27th.
The state govt has left no stone unturned in their preparations to host back to back athletic tournaments. Apart from the SoPs laid out by Hockey India, every athlete and coach, technical staff were instructed to submit a negative RT-PCR report on arrival at Bhopal with the test taken within 48 hours prior to departure. Furthermore, all participants were directed to install the Arogya Setu App. Additionally, a COVID-19 Taskforce is also constituted by the organizing committee to ensure stringent implementation of the protocols issued by MHA.