The newly refurbished National Hockey Centre presented the opportunity for Fiji Hockey to host overseas teams at home.
National coach and veteran Hector Smith said it opened many opportunities for the sport especially with development on their mind for this season.
The National Hockey Centre was one of the two $19.5million project by the Fiji Sports Council.
“For us it’s always been difficult to go to tournaments because of the expanses but now we can make teams come here. We would rather play here at home, it’s good for us and we are close to our families.
“We’ve been going to the Gold Coast, the Solomon Islands and now we are about to leave for Oman so we’re really happy the facilities are upgraded. We want to bring back the Pacific Cup at the end of the year and hopefully, host the Ocean Championship here which includes Australia and New Zealand,” the women’s head coach said. The new facility ushers a new wave of development for the sport of hockey.
“Its just a plus-plus for us because if schools’ hockey is introduced then they get to play on the ideal and international standard facility. With that we can also do modern training which will augur well for the sport.”
The National Hockey Centre now has four new floodlights and a new synthetic turf. Works on the facility started in March 2022 and was completed in October last year.
