Irish Hockey is riding the crest of a wave with both men’s and women’s senior teams reaching the semi finals of Challenge tournaments in Malaysia and Scotland yesterday.
The Women’s team stunned world number eight and pre tournament favourites Korea to advance to the semi finals of their event while the men will now face the same opponents for the first time since ending Irish Olympic hopes with a goal ten seconds from the end of a qualifying tournament at Belfield in 2012.
The sport in Ireland is also preparing to launch a new ‘short’ version of the sport which will make it more accessible for schools, workplaces and other groups.
The game will be trialled in Dublin next Tuesday and Sport for Business will be there to run the rule over how it looks and how engaged people are with it.
The key changes of the new variant of the sport are that it is played with a bigger and lighter ball with simplified rules. This format is also played with smaller teams which can be mixed or single gender and it can be played on any surface.
But beyond that it is fun, fast-paced so excellent for fitness and health, easy to play, can be played at any age and it is also perfect for beginners.
The sport’s governing body won an award from the Coca Cola Thank You Fund in 2013 and is finalising a five year roll out of the new game through a number of channels.
It is conducting a public vote on what the name of the new sport should be and Sport for Business readers can have their say as well. You have until noon today, Friday, May 2nd for your vote to count…
