By Ibrahim Karim Bangura (Tanko)

Email: ibangura071@gmail.com

Field Hockey is one of the oldest sporting disciplines in the world; Sierra Leoneans see it as a new sport without enthusiastic fans. Even though those who introduced it have made efforts to make Sierra Leone Hockey Association (SLHA), relevant in the international arena people still see it as a new sport among the 49 competitive sporting disciplines.

In an interview with Sport Afrca24, the Interim President of the Sierra Leone Hockey Association, Philp Salis Bangura disclosed that Hockey was fist established and introduced eight years ago, in 2013/2014.

Before then there was no Hockey activity in the country.

“As one of oldest sporting events  at the Olympic level, I found it strange that Hockey is not taken up as a sport in Sierra Leone, so I decided to embark on forming an association. During the formative stage, I went about the whole process of registering the association through the Ministry of Sports.

We were in the Olympic Committee and the International Federation. We are duly registered with them and have been in existence since 2013, though we are in the process of registering with the National Sports Authority (NSA), but the procedure is very slow due to personal infighting amongst members because of leadership tussle” he confirmed.

Speaking to the former Manager of Hill Station Hockey Club, Michael Sesay who also doubles as Senior Executive Member of Hockey believed that they have five existing clubs in the country, namely, Hill Station, Central Hockey Club, Imagining Rangers, Ducken Hockey and Hyped Hockey at the moment, he said since 2013 to date the association is yet to take part in different international competitions due to lack of support by government over the years.

“To start with, we have major challenges facing our young people to gravitate towards the sports itself. Because of a tartaric meaning as it was not known by sport lovers, not like football.  However, funding has been the herculean task for us.

Every time we are faced with international competitions or even local competitions that we organized, most time we find it very difficult to attract donors to help us out. Sometimes, we contribute our personal monies in order to promote the game because it is our passion.” he stated.