Minutes after being elected as the brand new worldwide hockey federation (FIH) president, Tayyab Ikram on Saturday introduced that the worldwide physique will shift to waterless pitches on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
At its forty sixth Congress right here in 2018, FIH had determined that 2024 onwards it might usher in a brand new pitch that hardly makes use of water, not like the present artificial turfs that want lot of watering to manage the tempo of the ball. It didn’t need hockey to be seen as “losing water”. To push its sustainability technique, FIH has been working with turf makers.
The inaugural Hockey5s match on June 4-5 was held on a pitch that didn’t want water. FIH plans to carry the primary Hockey5s World Cup in Muscat, Oman in January 2024 on a waterless floor.
“It (LA 2028) is the goal. It’s a problem (FIH CEO) Thierry (Weil) embraced when he got here on board in 2018. We weren’t believing on this however he was persistent. It’s sophisticated, technology-wise. We already used 40% much less water in Tokyo 2020 than in Rio 2016. It’s in a developmental section,” mentioned Ikram, who can also be the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) CEO.
Weil and Ikram mentioned they plan to introduce waterless or much less water consuming pitches within the 2024 Professional League and the 2026 World Cup in Belgium and Netherlands, which is able to assist get the suggestions on whether or not to make use of the brand new surfaces on the LA Video games.
“We now have examined it many instances in several situations with the suggestions of the gamers. We had rain in Lausanne as nicely which demonstrated it was not slippery. It labored nicely. There are small particulars which should be tailored however the gamers are amazed concerning the floor. From now each Hockey5 match shall be performed on this floor. Step-by-step we’ll begin introducing in 11-a-side as nicely,” mentioned Weil.
FIH’s world associate Polytan has introduced that the 2024 Paris Olympics match shall be performed on hockey’s first carbon zero turf known as Poligras Paris GT zero.
Ikram beats Coudron
Macau’s Ikram was elected president on the forty eighth FIH Congress held nearly. He obtained 79 of the 126 votes submitted by members, getting the required absolute majority of greater than half the votes. His solely opponent, Belgium’s Marc Coudron, obtained 47 votes.
Will probably be solely a two-year time period, to finish the mandate of earlier president Narinder Batra, who resigned on July 18 after his appointment was annulled by the Delhi excessive court docket.
Maureen Craig-Rousseau and Elizabeth Safoa King had been re-elected to the FIH Government Board (EB) whereas Hiroya Anzai, Piotr Wilkonski and Deon Morgan had been elected as FIH government board members. The time period of workplace of Deon Morgan shall be of two years, to take over the remaining two years of Tayyab Ikram’s time period. The mandates of the opposite EB members who had been elected or re-elected on Saturday will run till the 2026 FIH Congress.
Hockey India CEO Elena Norman was named one of many seven recipients of the FIH President’s Award for “taking part in an impressive position within the promotion and growth of hockey in India in addition to across the globe by means of the quite a few world occasions which the nation has been internet hosting”.