Bhubaneswar: After a pause of few months, Kalinga Hockey Stadium is againg going to enthrall the hockey lovers as a series of important tournaments scheduled to be played between March first week and April. Kalinga Hockey Stadium is going to host the National Championships 2021 along with the Junior and Sub Junior Women Academy National Championship 2021. The first Hockey India Junior Women Academy National Championship 2021 will be held from 17 March to 26 March 2021 and the first Hockey India Sub Junior Women Academy National Championship 2021 will be held from 17th March to 24th March 2021.
According to a release from Hockey India, “ The much-awaited Hockey India National Championships 2021 will kick-start in March this year, after the pandemic affected the national calendar last year with majority of the key national level events being cancelled.”
This year, however, the domestic competitions will resume in a new, restructured format which vies to maximise athlete participation and develop the game in states, union territories, institutional units and academies.
Kicking off the season this year will be the 11th Hockey India Sub Junior Women National Championship 2021 which will be held in Simdega, Jharkhand from 10 March to 18 March 2021. The 11th Hockey India Sub Junior Men National Championship 2021 will be held in Narwana district in Haryana starting from 17 March to 25 March 2021. This will be the first time both Simdega, Jharkhand & Narwana, Haryana are hosting a Hockey India National Championship.
The inaugural edition of the 1st Hockey India Junior Women Academy National Championship 2021 will be held from 17 March to 26 March 2021 and 1st Hockey India Sub Junior Women Academy National Championship 2021 from 17 March to 24 March 2021 at the Kalinga Hockey Stadium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
This will be followed by the 11th Hockey India Junior Women National Championship at Simdega, Jharkhand between 03 April to 12 April 2021.
The National Championships will be resuming after a span of one year. In 2020, the 10th Hockey India Senior Men and Senior Women Championship 2020 (A Division) as well as the 10th Hockey India Senior Women National Championship 2020 (B Division) were held in January and February 2020 while the remaining National Championships were cancelled due to the worldwide Covid 19 pandemic.
“We are very happy to resume the domestic calendar after the pandemic halted all the sporting events last year,” stated Hockey India’s President Gyanendro Ningombam.
“The season will begin in an all-new avatar with the restructuring of events for sub-junior, junior and senior national championships for both men and women as well as Hockey India registered State Member Units, Public Sector Units/ Departmental Units and Academy Member Units respectively.” he added.