News for 16 August 2020
All the news for Sunday 16 August 2020
No go for Junior Asia Cups this year
By Jugjet Singh
THE postponed men and women's Junior Asia Cups will not be held this year.
This was confirmed by the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) yesterday.
The tournaments, which are qualifying events for the men and women's Junior World Cups, in Bangladesh (men — June) and Japan (women — April) were postponed indefinitely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The initial plan was to hold both tournaments by the end of the year.
As for the Asian Champions Trophy (ACT) in Bangladesh on Nov 17-27, the AHF will decide later this month on whether to postpone it.
"Both tournaments will not be held this year because of the 14-day quarantine period which is compulsory for those entering into countries," said AHF CEO Datuk Tayyab Ikram.
The AHF are looking at moving the qualifying tournaments to other countries.
"It will be tricky as we need to check on the travel restrictions of potential bidders, as well as participating nations' Covid-19 restrictions to the host country," said Tayyab.
Tayyab added: "As for the ACT, the AHF and the International Hockey Federation will discuss soon and make a stand on whether to host it in November."
New Straits Times
Pakistan's Hockey players delighted as sports activities resume
LAHORE: Hockey players, both boys and girls, are excited to return to play grounds and resume training after the government eased the lockdown imposed for nearly five months due to coronavirus.
International women’s player Afshan Noreen said she was happy to be allowed to return to proper training. “We just have to take care of the SOPs and keep in mind that the coronavirus is not over yet. We need to be careful,” she said.
Hockey player Azfar Yaqub said that he has started training in the field after five months and was happy that the activities had started.
“There will be difficulties in the beginning because no matter how much work you have done on fitness and jogging, when you train on the turf you need more stamina,” he said.
The News International
Getting safety ready for the new hockey season
England Hockey were keen to respond to questions posed by The Hockey Paper’s readers around safety in our sport.
Are concussions on the rise?
The incidence of concussion in elite level hockey is low, estimated to be at 0.2 – 1.5 episodes per 1000 playing hours. This is similar to, if not less than, other comparable contact sports. The rates in hockey are far below those reported in rugby. RFU reported an incidence of 15.8/1000 playing hours in 2015/16. Most concussions in hockey come as a result of a direct collision with another athlete which is an inherent risk in any contact sport; i.e they are not related to stick/ball activity as such.
How do clubs report injuries?
Clubs at all levels can report injuries at englandhockey.co.uk/injurymonitoring, and this is mandatory for all competitions run by England Hockey. We kindly ask all members to please complete the injury monitoring form in as much detail as possible when injuries are sustained. This will allow EH to continue to monitor head and face injuries in the sport and to analyse the data for trends. It is shared with the FIH. This information will empower the England Hockey Board and the FIH to implement changes to the rules when and where the evidence supports it.
Should face masks be introduced in open play?
We adopt the official Rules of Hockey written by the FIH as we have always believed that we should all play the same rules. The current FIH research into head/face injuries has concluded that the drawbacks associated with wearing face masks during general play i.e. a greater risk to players due to the possibility of impaired vision, a danger to their opponents and the so-called “gladiator-effect” whereby players take up positions that are more likely to incur injury due to feeling they are protected, outweigh the risk of injury as a consequence of not wearing a face mask during general play. This is being continually monitored and is a key priority for the FIH Health & Safety Committee.
Am I insured if I’m injured playing hockey?
It depends on whether your club has taken out personal accident cover for its players. This is offered to those clubs that use the EH scheme administered by Howden Group. If your club has not taken out the Howden scheme it would still be possible for them to take out personal accident cover. All schemes are different and provide different levels of cover for different types of injury. All players should be aware of the insurance cover provided by their club and take out their own Personal Accident insurance if required.
What are the rules regarding juniors playing adult hockey?
England Hockey policy is that players must be aged 13 or over to play in adult hockey, i.e. Saturday league hockey. This does not include” badgers” style activity where both teams have a set number of junior and senior players.
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The Hockey Paper
T&T’s Brathwaite joins US coaching staff
by Nigel Simon
National women's team hockey player, Kayla Brathwaite scored for Lock Haven University field hockey team (11-8) to take an early lead, but in the end 13th ranked Saint Joseph's (16-3) scored two second-half goals, to end the Bald Eagles bid for an Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) Tournament title 2-1 in 2019. Credit: LHU
T&T senior women’s team hockey player, Kayla Brathwaite has joined the Central Penn Field Hockey Club coaching staff.
The club is based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania and is committed to the development of players between the Under-10 and Under-19 age-group and was recently voted as the USA Field Hockey National Club of the Year award recipient
The appointment to the coaching position for the former Bishop East Anstey High School student continues a stellar year for the Arouca-born Brathwaite, who in May, became the second T&T woman after former team-mate at a local club, Notre Dame, Blair Wynne (2008) to capture Lock Haven University's Charlie E. Smith Award when the Lock Haven University Department of Athletics held its sixth annual Talons.
This year, the Talons were held virtually on social media due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which has caused the cancellation of most of 2020 season since mid-March across the world.
Highlighting, the night was the announcement of the 2019-20 Charlotte E. Smith (women) and Bald Eagle (men) award winners.
Copping the Charlotte E. Smith was former Bishop Anstey East High School student, Brathwaite who represented the Pennsylvania, USA University in both field hockey and track and field for the past four years.
The award is presented to an outstanding female student-athlete senior who has shown dedication to both academics, athletics and outstanding leadership, and has made a lasting impact on the "Haven Nation".
Brathwaite, 25, who earned her Bachelor of Science in Education with a minor in psychology at Lock Haven University was hailed as a model student-athlete and was named to the Atlantic-10 First Team All-Conference this season and holds a 3.56 cumulative GPA.
She also excelled on the track, sitting second in LHU history with a time of 42.80 in the 300 metres and is part of school records in two relay events, the 4x200 metres and the distance medley relay.
However, with the COVID-19 pandemic causing the cancellation of the 2020 spring sports season, Brathwaite and her nine other seniors did not get the chance to continue their impressive school athletics resumes.
During her time at Lock Haven Brathwaite quietly been a stud of the Haven ladies.
She sits second all-time at LHU in the Indoor 300m, eighth all-time in the outdoor 400m, and has been a member on the record-breaking outdoor distance medley relay team and outdoor 800m relay team.
Additionally, she contributed to the fourth place finishing 2019 PSAC distance medley relay team ((12:53.25 minutes), and individually finished sixth in the 400m at the 2019 PSAC Outdoor Championship meet, running 58.34 seconds that put her at eighth all-time at Lock Haven.
She also finished tenth in the 400m at the 2020 Indoor PSAC Championship and ended her tenure with a college best in the 60m (8.18 secs); 100m (13.15 seconds); 200m (26.03 sec); 300m (42.80 secs), and 400m (58:34).
On the hockey astroturf, Brathwaite who plans to become an educator in the field of health and physical education in the future earned All-Region honours from the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) and helped lead the Bald Eagle field hockey team to their first A-10 playoff appearance since 2014 and a 6-2 conference record and 11-8 overall, going 11-7 in the regular season.
She was also named to the Division I NFHCA Senior All-Star Game and was one of ten members of the Lock Haven team who earned a spot on the 2019 Zag/National Field Hockey Coaches' Association (NFHCA) Division I National Academic squad.
This after she was named as a 2018 Zag/National Field Hockey Coaches’ Association Division I National Academic Team member and earned a 2018 pre-season All-Conference pick.
During her 2017 debut season, she was a standout as a freshman, being named to the 2017 All-Atlantic 10 Second Team and All A-10 Rookie Team after scoring one goal and five assists and was a 2017 Division I National Academic squad member.
The Trinidad Guardian
T&T's Whiteman gets Healthy Food Policy Fellowship
by Nigel Simon
Stephanie Whiteman
National women’s team hockey player Stephanie Whiteman, daughter of the former national duo, Kenneth Whiteman and Carol Wynn-Whiteman is one of three candidates selected by Vital Strategies as the Healthy Food Policy Fellows for this year which is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies for three years.
The selection committee reviewed 33 applications of and conducted interviews before shortlisting 11 candidates from which the final decisions were made.
The fellows are from countries where we focus on obesity prevention in Barbados where she attends university, Mexico, and Jamaica and will be pursuing different fields of study to bridge the research gaps and contribute to healthier food environments, through the use of the public policy, in their respective countries.
The 24-year-old Whiteman of Notre Dame Hockey Club is an upcoming Public Health Researcher.
A former Lock Haven University player, Whiteman is pursuing a PhD in nutritional epidemiology from the University of West Indies.
As a research associate at the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre, she is working on several research projects related to the relationship between the food environment and health.
She is also a fellow for Yale- Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center’s Data Sharing Work Group which runs for a year and began last January.
The Yale Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center for Health Disparities Research focuse on Precision Medicine (Yale-TCC) is a collaboration between the Equity Research and Innovation Center (ERIC) and health, policy, and community leaders in Region II (New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands), Trinidad, and Barbados.
The Yale-TCC builds upon the infrastructure and knowledge of the Eastern Caribbean Health Outcomes Research Network (ECHORN) to generate novel science, strengthen partnerships, and implement interventions to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases within Region II and the Caribbean.
The Yale-TCC, funded by the National Institute of Health/National Institute of Minority Health and Disparities (NIH/NIMHD), aims to: 1. Utilize a precision medicine approach to inform a broad range of robust research and programmatic activities to advance scientific knowledge, technical capacity, and clinical practice that address the early detection and primary prevention of hypertension and type 2 diabetes in Region II, Trinidad, and Barbados. 2. Develop, launch, and evaluate a series of activities and events to promote a collaborative and multidirectional learning environment across the Yale-TCC. 3. Disseminate and communicate findings internal and external to the YALE-TCC to promote diffusion, uptake, and scale-up of evidence-based and cost-effective interventions.
In 2016, she earned her bachelor’s degree in Health Science from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania.
She has also obtained an MPH from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados.
Apart from her researcher roles, Whiteman is also a Public Health advocate.
She is a youth advocate for the Healthy Caribbean Coalition and an NCD Child Young Leader.
Also, she is a health technical advisor for the Reconciliation and Development Association in Cameroon.
Besides her work within the health field, Whiteman is a qualified FIH Level 1 Field Hockey Coach.
The Trinidad Guardian