Kakinada, Jul 31 (PTI) The 15th edition of the Hockey India Junior Women National Championship will begin here from Friday with 30 teams vying for top honours.
The tournament, to be played in the newly-introduced division-based format, will conclude on August 12, and the teams will be divided into three segments — A, B and C.
The two bottom-placed teams in A and B divisions will be relegated to B and C groups respectively for the tournament’s next year’s edition.
Meanwhile, the top two teams of B and C divisions will be promoted to A and B clusters respectively.
Division A comprises top 12 teams in the country and will feature defending champions Hockey Jharkhand in Pool A, last year’s runners-up Hockey Madhya Pradesh in Pool B, and second runners-up Hockey Haryana in Pool C.
Meanwhile, Division B and Division C will comprise teams that are not in the top 12 national rankings, fighting to climb the ranks.
Hockey India President Dilip Tirkey said, “After the Senior Nationals and the Sub Junior Nationals, the new format will now be implemented in the Junior Nationals tournament. We have had really positive outcomes from both the Senior and Sub Junior teams and are confident that the junior domestic players will be equally pleased playing this new format.” Division ‘A’ ========= Pool A: Hockey Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh Hockey, Hockey Karnataka Pool B: Hockey Madhya Pradesh, Hockey Punjab, Hockey Chandigarh.
Pool C: Hockey Haryana, Uttar Pradesh Hockey, Hockey Bengal.
Pool D: Hockey Association of Odisha, Hockey Maharashtra, Hockey Andhra Pradesh.
Division ‘B’ ======== Pool A: Manipur Hockey, Le Puducherry Hockey, Hockey Uttarakhand, Kerala Hockey, Assam Hockey.
Pool B: Hockey Himachal, Delhi, Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu, Hockey Arunachal, Hockey Association of Bihar.
Division ‘C’ ========= Pool A: Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu Hockey, Jammu & Kashmir, Goans Hockey, Tripura.
Pool B: Hockey Gujarat, Raj., Hockey Mizoram, Telangana Hockey. PTI UNG DDV
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.