National team needs funding for Pan Am tourney

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Victor Tomlinson, president of the Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF), said the association is still in need of another $1.2 million to finance the national team's participation at this month's Pan American Junior Championships, which will be held in Trinidad and Tobago from October 17-26.

"We have received some funding from the Sports Development Foundation (SDF), but this is still not enough because the overall cost to send the team is $2.3 million," said Tomlinson, in an interview with The Gleaner, yesterday.

No answers

Tomlinson added that they have made a number of requests to companies for sponsorship, but he has yet to receive an answer.

Given that position, he is asking corporate Jamaica for any support they can give the association.

Tomlinson noted that he expects the team to do a lot better than their ninth place finish at the last championship, which was held in Cuba in 2005.

"The coaches are fairly confident that we can do much better than our last performance in Cuba, because they have dedicated a lot of their time to the team," he said.

The competition

The Jamaicans are drawn in group A, along with defending champions Argentina, the United States, Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago. Group B includes, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Guyana and Barbados.

Tomlinson said one of the challenges the team faces is that "... most of the other nations in the competition are better prepared than us because a number of them have started arriving for the tournament already.

"The preparation has gone well, given the situation we are in with our limited resources that we have heading into the championships," Tomlinson explained.