Jr National hockey from June 18

Chennai, June 16 (UNI) The cream of country's junior talent will be in full view in the St Joseph's TNHA under-20 Junior National Hockey Championship to be held here from June 18 to 30.

Talking to reporters here last night, IHF Secretary General K Jyothikumaran said 38 teams would participate in the tournament which carries the highest prize money ever of Rs 1.5 lakh.

The tournament assumes significance as probables for the forthcoming international tournaments, including the eight-nation tournament in Germany in August, would be picked based on the performance here.

''We are also building the team for next year's Asia Cup, which will be the qualifying tournament for the Junior World Cup in 2009'', he said. The Asia cup would be held in India and the venue would be decided later.

''The tournament will be a launch pad for the upcoming talent.

Eminent experts including A K Bansal, who coached Orissa Steelers to title win in PHL, Rajesh Chowhan, former Olympians V Baskaran, M P Govinda will deeply analyse the performance of every player and identify the talent for the future'', he said.

In the last edition held at Jabalpur in 2005 Services emerged winner and SAIL finished as the second best team while Tamil Nadu had finished third.

Thanking the St Joseph's College of Engineering for sponsoring the tournament, Mr Jyothikumaran said the prize money was the highest ever in a junior national event with the winner getting Rs 50,000, runner-up Rs 30,000 and the third placed team Rs 20,000.

He said apart from prize money special prizes of Rs 10,000 each would be given to promising goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, forward and most promising player of the final.

Adding another first to the tournament was holding of matches in synthetic surface for the first time. The tournament would be held in two phases and in two venues.

The teams would be divided in eight groups and the group topper would qualify for the quarterfinals. The semifinals would be held on June 29 and the final the next day.

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