Junior hockeywomen finish eighth in Pan Am

T&T’s junior women’s hockey team ended in eighth spot at the Pan American Junior (Under-21) Hockey Championship in Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico yesterday after losing 2-0 to Mexico in their seventh to eighth spot playoff. For the Central Americans, Jazel Salazar opened the scoring in the 27th minute from a field goal while Maria Correa added the insurance item in the 61st minute. In the fifth to eighth place semifinal on Wednesday, T&T went under to Uruguay, 5-1 on Wednesday while Venezuela secured a 3-2 golden-goal win over Mexico after both teams battled to a 2-2 draw at the end of regulation time on Tuesday. Earlier on yesterday, Paraguay blanked Jamaica 3-0 for ninth spot while Venezuela and Uruguay faced off in the late match for fifth spot. Today in the gold medal match, Canada faces Argentina while Chile and USA meet for third spot.

 

In the main semifinals on Wednesday, Canada whipped Chile 3-1 and the Argentines crushed USA 6-0. By reaching the final, Canada and Argentina have qualified for the FIH Seventh Women’s Junior World Cup and will be joined by the bronze medallist.  If a Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) National Association is the host, that country will qualify automatically, together with the two highest placed teams. Today, the national junior men’s team will come up against Mexico in the playoff for fifth and sixth spot from 4 pm. This, after the T&T hockeymen missed out on a chance to compete for the bronze after their 2-1 loss to Chile in their final second round Pool E match on Thursday.