32 teams to feature in 4th Senior Women Nationals

Defending champions Haryana, last year’s runners-up Haryana, Punjab and Jharkhand are among thirty two teams that will slug it out for top honours in the 4^th Hockey India Senior Women National Championship, which gets underway in Bhopal from March 13. The senior nationals will run till March 23.

Like the men’s section, the senior nationals for women from this year onwards will see a two-tier format – Division A and B. The championship will be played at the Aish Bagh Hockey Stadium and Hockey Stadium Mayur Park.

The event will be played on a league-cum-knockout basis and will be played in two phases -- Division A and B. 16 teams will compete in both divisions. The national ‘B’ division will be played from March 13-20, while the national ‘A’ division will be played from March 18-23.

Each division will comprise four pools featuring four teams each. The tournament will witness the induction of two new teams -- Vidarbha Hockey Association and Hockey Gangpur - Odisha. Assam will take on Goa in the inaugural match of national ‘B’ Division on March 13 and the final match of will be played on March 20. Haryana will face Odisha in the inaugural match of national ‘A’ division on March 18 and the final will be played on March 23.

It may be worth recalling that Haryana got the better of Railways 4-1 in the 2013 final in Lucknow, in a game where the latter squandered a mammoth 13 penalty corners. Jharkhand had pipped Punjab to take the third spot.

The senior nationals are of prime importance for women’s hockey players as the year 2014 is an important year for them considering that the national team will be taking part in big-ticket events like Champions Challenge 1, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.