Hockey Junior World Cup: More than 30 players from Youth Olympics a part of marquee event

The ongoing FIH Hockey Men's Junior World Cup has players who are not short of big-stage experience. The Hockey Men's Junior World Cup has 31 players, including four team captains, who participated in the Youth Olympic Games in 2018.

Indian men's hockey team skipper Vivek Sagar Prasad, Argentina captain Facundo Zarate, Poland's skipper Gracjan Jarzynski and Malaysia's captain Akhimullah Anuar were part of the Youth Olympic Games and are currently leading their respective teams.

The hockey format played at the Youth Olympic Games is Hockey5s, which, as the name suggests, is played with five players per team. It is particularly known for its non-stop end-to-end action, its higher number of goals on average and its shorter match duration (2 x 10 minutes).

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Hockey5s was the most attended sport at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games with 2,00,000 spectators.

Indian Hockey team skipper has fond memories of Youth Olympics

Indian men's team captain Vivek Sagar Prasad, in a media statement, said he had very fond memories of the Youth Olympic Games in 2018. Incidentally, Vivek Sagar Prasad led the Indian team at the Youth Olympics as well. He added:

"I was quite overwhelmed when I arrived in Buenos Aires as it was my first experience at a multi-discipline event especially as the team captain. It was a great learning yet very enjoyable experience playing the Hockey5s format and we ended the Games with a silver medal. It was undoubtedly one of the best tournaments of my formative years in international hockey."

In order to further boost the development of hockey globally through Hockey5s, FIH has created an FIH Hockey5s World Cup - with the inaugural edition planned in 2024 in Oman - and, in the near future, a Hockey5s World Tour.

Furthermore, the ‘FIH Hockey5s Lausanne 2022’ event is scheduled to be held on June 4 and June 5 next year and will involve, amongst others, the men’s teams of India, Malaysia and Poland.