By Melton Williams,
Staff Reporter
JAMAICA'S campaign to make the 10th International Hockey Federation (FIH) women's World Cup in 2002 begins at the Mona hockey field today when they face Venezuela in their first qualifying game of the VMBS first Americas Cup.
The hosts, with the odds heavily stacked against them to take tournament honours, are one of seven countries bidding for a place at the prestigious tournament which will be held in Perth, Australia, between November 26 to December 8.
Six of seven countries in the hunt for the automatic qualifying place from this tournament will launch their opening attacks on today's opening day of the two-week tournament.
The fixture reads: Uruguay vs Canada at 2:00, US vs Mexico at 4:00 and hosts Jamaica against Venezuela at 7:30 p.m. The opening ceremony is at 6:00.|
The odds are stacked against the hosts advancing out of this tournament as three top-class teams in Argentina (silver medallists at the Sydney Olympics), USA and Canada are hot favourites for the honours. As a result, national coach Dr. Michelle Holt hopes her team will be one of the three to get another chance to advance to another World Cup qualifier this year in France.
Today's assignment is expected to be the Jamaicans easiest, but injuries to two key players in Kadene Brown and Nicole Grant, who both had four-month stints with the Eindhoven club in Holland last year, could affect the team.
While Brown is expected to get over her groin strain for the game, the same cannot be said of Grant, who is suffering from a knee injury.
Holt said that the injury has affected Grant in that she has been ruled out of play for the past three weeks.
However, Dr. Holt is expecting Jamaica to clear the first hurdle.
"We anticipate success against Venezuela and this should be a good start for us," Dr. Holt said.
Venezuela, are one of four teams Dr. Holt expects to fall to the 'Sunshine Girls'.
"Venezuela, Mexico, Uruguay along with Jamaica are emerging teams ... we matched up well against them and we will try not to be complacent. It is going to be difficult to out perform the US, Argentina and Canada," Dr. Holt said.
Venezuelan coach Inako Buco is aware that his team is the underdog.
"We don't have anything to lose ... nobody expected anything from us and this may be to our advantage," he said.
TODAY'S GAMES
Uruguay vs Canada at 2:00 p.m.
US vs Mexico at 4:00
Jamaica vs Venezuela at 7:30
