NAIROBI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania and Rwanda have pulled out of the inaugural East Africa hockey tournament, which will be hosted in Nairobi from Sunday.
Their withdrawal left host Kenya and Uganda the only teams to compete in the three-day tournament, which is being used as part of the countries preparations for the Africa Games, to be held in Casablanca, Morocco in August.
Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) secretary general Wycliffe Momanyi said preparations have been completed and Uganda will present two teams while Kenya has another four.
"Local organization and logistics for the competition have been finalized. We are only waiting for the Ugandans to arrive. Already one of the facilitators from Uganda arrived yesterday," Momanyi said on Saturday in Nairobi.
Alongside the tournament, training programs for coaches, umpires and other officials from the region will be administered jointly by KHU, Africa Hockey Federation, the International Hockey Federation (FIH), as well as the FIH Hockey Academy under the Targeted Assistance Program (TAP).
With the tournament mostly made of under-19 players, Momanyi said they are seeking to groom the youngsters for the future.
"Ideally this competition is set for under-19s but it is open. What we are targeting as a union is to oversee this youngsters develop into the senior team in the next four to five years. We also have the Africa Games coming up and we want our youth to have a stake in the selection of the final team that will go to Morocco," said Momanyi.
