T&T senior men’s indoor hockey arrived in Porec, Croatia on Wednesday night after almost two days of travelling and had their first training session yesterday ahead of the start of the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup on February 3 and runs until February 9.
The team’s journey to Croatia involved a 12-hour stopover in Barbados, from where they journey to London, then to Italy before arriving in Croatia and following their light session yesterday, the Darren Cowie-led "Calypso Stickmen" will train today ahead of their warm-up against South Africa tomorrow (Saturday, February 1,) ahead of their matches in the Group C campaign.
The 17th-ranked T&T will open its campaign versus world fourth-ranked Australia on Monday (February 3) ahead of their remaining matches versus 14th-ranked Namibia on Wednesday (February 5) and Belgium, ranked third in the world, on Thursday (February 6).
Pool A will feature world top-ranked Austria, No 22 Croatia, No 9 Poland and No 8 South Africa, while No 12 Argentina, No 5 Germany, No 2 Iran, and No 22 Malaysia are in Pool B.
At the end of the three round-robin pool matches, the top eight ranked teams will contest the quarterfinals ahead of the semifinals, final, and other playoff spots.
Led by head coach Raphael Govia, who will be in charge of the team for a second straight FIH Indoor World Cup after his debut at the prestigious event in 2018 in Berlin, Germany, where T&T placed tenth, the locals will be eager to improve on their previous finishes.
Speaking from Croatia, Govia said the guys have settled in and had a very good first session after they managed to get some some very important rest after 48 hours of flying.
The T&T squad is a relatively experienced one with Saudi Arabia-based Solomon Eccles, goalkeeper Ron Alexander and Mickell Pierre, all members of the two FIH Indoor World Cups, first in 2007 in Vienna, Austria and 11 years later in Germany.
In 2007, the T&T men's team were beaten by Germany (9-2), Russia (9-2), Switzerland (6-1), Australia (5-1) and Czech Republic (6-1) before losing 4-2 to South Africa in their 11th to 12th position playoff.
At their second appearance in 2018, T&T went under to Czech Republic (7-2), Poland (11-5), Australia (7-6), and Germany (10-2) while they picked up their first ever World Cup win 6-4 over Kazakhstan in pool play.
However, in the playoff for the ninth spot, T&T was edged out by Russia 3-2. .
Last March in Calgary, Canada, the "Calypso Stickmen", led by Toussaint, qualified for their third FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup despite a 5-2 loss to Argentina in the gold medal contest of the five-team tournament.
T&T, the 2017 Pan American Cup Indoor champions, had earlier in the tournament defeated Guyana 5-3 and host Canada 7-3 but went under to the USA 4-3 and Argentina (12-2) in pool play before they turned the tide on the Americans in the semifinals, 5-4, to earn their ticket to Croatia, with Argentina blasting Guyana 10-0 in the other semifinal.
President of the T&T Hockey Board Willard P Harris speaking at the Piarco International Airport prior to the team's departure on Tuesday morning thanked the Sport Company of T&T (SportTT) for supporting the national men's hockey team to the 2025 FIH Indoor World Cup in Croatia.
Harris said, "We had to work through all the requirements that are needed for us from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Sports and we were able to get the approvals and the release of funds to support the team.|
"They also assisted us greatly in having the facilities at the Woodbrook Youth Facility available to the national men's team for training which we were very greatly thankful for."
However, Harris noted that the team had no corporate help and it's something they would love to see change going forward.
"We didn't have any corporate assistance in getting the team to Croatia which is very unfortunate, but at the same time we will continue to strive to see if we can get corporate sponsorship in the future because we have other national teams inclusive of the Under-21s getting ready for a tournament in Barbados, the Junior Pan American Challenge Cup in March."
In calling on corporate T&T to throw their support behind the sport, Harris said, "Looking back hockey has been one of the few sports that has managed to have a number of teams compete at World Cups.
"We have seen the men team qualify to three FIH Indoor World Cup tournaments (2007, 2018 and 2025), while the women competed at the inaugural edition in Leipzig, Germany in 2003 with the the men's hockey5s team debuting last year in Oman, and the U-21 women appearing back in Spain in 1993.
"So, we have been maybe to the most World Cups as an association and we have a really good history of representing T&T on the international stage, but we need that corporate support," said Harris.
GROUPS
Pool A: No 1 Austria, No 22 Croatia, No 9 Poland, No 8 South Africa
Pool B: No 12 Argentina, No 5 Germany, No 2 Iran, No 22 Malaysia
Pool C:No 4 Australia, No 3 Belgium, No 14 Namibia, No 17 T&T
T&T Team
Ron Alexander (goalkeeper), Karlos Stephens (goalkeeper), Arielle Bowen, Solomon Eccles, Shaquille Daniel, Lyndel Byer, Jordan Reynos, Jordan Vieira, Tarell Singh, Darren Cowie (captain), Mikel Pierre, Teague Marcano, Dylan Francis, Nicholas Siu Butt.
Technical staff: Raphael Govia (coach), Akim Toussaint (assistant coach), Keshen Johnson (manager), Akil Howard (trainer/physiotherapist), Nicholas Baldeosingh (videographer).