H. W. Holt
SIX DAYS to get $400,000 is the desperate plight the Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF), looking to send its team to participate in the fifth Women's Pan American Junior Champion-ships in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The tournament will run from March 16 to 27 and involves 12 team of which the top three will qualify for the Junior World Cup, between June 29 and July 10 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Due to the lack of funds, Jamaica's participation in the tournament is in jeopardy and the JHF is short on its budget of $1.8 million, only managing to garner $1.4 million.
However, Dr. Michele Holt, the JHF's vice-president for women, remains optimistic.
STILL HOPEFUL
"Right now, we are short $400,000 in terms of hotel accommodation, food and taxes," she told The Gleaner. "We don't want to send the team on hungry belly, but we are still hopeful."
According to the JHF, the tournament is part of the its plan to develop the youth to eventually recapture the leading position in the region a position Jamaica held in 1990 when the senior female team mined gold from the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Mexico.
Jamaica will be up against regional giants, Argentina, Chile, the United States and Uruguay, and Dr. Holt says the team will be going there with a lot of preparation but it won't be easy to qualify.
"We have no idea how we are going to perform. The other teams have international experience and we have only two players with experience," said Holt.
The two players are twins, Shareeka and Shakeela Elliott, who represented Jamaica in the CAC Games in 2002 and the Pan Am Games in 2003.
But the good thing, according to Dr. Holt, is that except for six players, all the others will be eligible for the next Junior Pan Am Games in 2009.
The men's team recently finished ninth of the 11 teams in their championship in Cuba last month.
