ISLAMABAD Pakistan's boys' hockey team will face Ghana in the opening match of the first Youth Olympic Games on August 17 at Seng Kang Hockey Stadium Singapore. Twelve hockey teams from around the world are participating in the event.
Six boy's and six girl's teams will play 36 matches in total to find out who the first Youth Olympic Champions in hockey will be. To be eligible for the hockey tournament of the YOG 2010, athletes must have been born between January 1 1993 and December 31 1994.
The girls' matches will start off on Monday with the opening match between Netherlands and Ireland. The boys' tournament begins on Tuesday with a match between Pakistan and Ghana.
Australia (Oceania), Belgium (Europe), Chile (Pan America), Ghana (Africa), Pakistan (Asia), Singapore (Asia) participate in the boys' competition, while Argentina (Pan America), Ireland (Europe), Korea (Asia), Netherlands (Europe), New Zealand (Oceania) and South Africa (Africa) meet up in the girls' tournament.
Each of the six teams plays each other once in a round robin format to complete five preliminary round games. The top two teams at the end of the preliminary round matches play off in the gold medal match. The 3rd and 4th placed teams will compete for the bronze medal, while the 5th and 6th placed teams will meet in the 5th place playoff.
The classification matches will be played on August 23 (girls) and August 24 (boys).
Seng Kang Hockey Stadium is the same place where the Singaporean part of Men's Junior World Cup took place in 2009.
It will be interesting to see whether the teams whose adults are top in the world will take the medals or an underdog will reach the top in the course of the 36 matches. - APP
