2008 WUC Field Hockey: Update
June 25th, 2007
Dennis Meredith, FIH Events Manager
Today, June 25th, Dennis Meredith, Events Manager of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) visited the FISU Headquarters in Brussels to meet with FISU Director of Championships Laurent Briel. Together they discussed the particularities for the 1st World University Field Hockey Championship which will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa next year. Since this will be an inaugural championship – besides the fact that field hockey was an optional sport only once during a Summer Universiade (Sheffield 1991) – it is important to have the expert input of the international governing body of field hockey and to establish an excellent working relationship between FISU and FIH. Therefore, the dates were discussed in order not to interfere with the FIH calendar of international competitions, as well as the tournament system, the referees and the general competition outline.
During his visit of the FISU HQ, Mr. Meredith also met with Sports Assistant Michal Buchel and Media Representative Christian Pierre. Mr. Meredith is in Belgium for the 2007 BDO Men’s Hockey Challenge, which takes place in Boom, near Antwerp and which is an international field hockey tournament, played every two years. It was introduced in 2001 by the International Hockey Federation in order to broaden hockey's competitive base at world level. The tournament traditionally features the teams ranked 7th-12th in the world and can be considered as the Champions Trophy for the so called B-nations.
