Sam Ward in Bahrain to promote sports
Manama : Great Britain Olympic Field Hockey forward Sam Ward was in Bahrain to witness the Two-Day National Fives organised by Bahrain Hockey which is under the umbrella of Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) at St Christopher Senior School in Isa Town and held to promote the sport in the Kingdom.
The 25-year old Leicester-born 2016 Rio Olympian and guest of honour, has 49 caps for England and Great Britain. Ward scored 18 goals and has played for Leicester, Loughborough Students, Beeston and is currently with Holcombe in Kent during his career.
“I am here to help promote the sport in Bahrain and grateful through Bahrain Hockey general-secretary Jude D’Souza to be here and look over the adult and junior competitions and organising a number of workshops,” said Ward.
Hockey has been played in Bahrain for more than 50 years and is now part of the BOC set-up, with the idea to expand the sport from mainly expatriates to involving local Bahrainis and getting schools involved.
“This is the first official tournament held under the BOC and I am proud to have met some of their officials during my visit and also the British Ambassador.”
Ward on a first time visit to Bahrain said, “HH Shaikh Nasser is doing a tremendous job in promoting and influencing the advancement of all sports in the Kingdom and is very inspirational, which promotes a healthy lifestyle and diversity.”
“I do think the future of hockey here is in good hands with the support of the BOC and Bahrain Hockey and hopefully an all-Bahraini team will be playing in international competition soon,” continued Ward.
Ward started playing hockey when aged four after being influenced by his parents who played the game and fell in love with it.
“I didn’t have the opportunity to play at school because the traditional games were Football, Cricket and Rugby. It was really at Beeston in Nottingham that my career took off when I was noticed by English coach Bobby Crutchley,” Ward added.
During the build-up to the 2016 Rio Olympics, Ward who is a centrally-contracted player, has been involved in five tournaments and made his senior international debut for England in 2014 in the Champions Trophy and scored twice against world champions Australia in a 3-1 win.
Moving on to the 2016 Olympics, Great Britain was ranked fourth but failed to qualify for the quarter knockout stages after finishing fifth in the six team group.
“It was a tough group and playing some of the top teams, we lost badly to Belgium 4-1, had a decent 2-2 draw with New Zealand, secured a 9-1 win over hosts Brazil and scoring two goals myself which for me was great as it was my first Olympics and goals, then we narrowly lost 2-1- to Australia and sadly could only draw 1-1 with Spain and failed to advance even though I equalised, if only we could have won, who knows?”
Ward said more and more players are getting involved in hockey back home and said the triumph of the Great Britain women team winning gold in the women’s competition at the Rio Olympics was as a huge inspiration.
“The women’s team were fantastic and after winning all eight games, deserved the gold medal and everyone was behind them especially in the final against Netherlands which was fantastic, even the penalty shoot-out and for the nation a great boost for hockey in general and development in the UK.”
Talking about the revival of India and Pakistan in hockey, Ward said, “The game has evolved and all countries have good and bad times and they will come back.”
D’Souza concluded by saying, “I hope this visit by Sam Ward will be the start of great things for hockey and a springboard to greater achievements for the hockey in Bahrain.”
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