Caribbean representatives Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica had to settle for eighth and 16th positions respectively after both produced credible efforts at the FIH Hockey 5s World Cup in Muscat, Oman, on Wednesday.
Trinidad and Tobago suffered a narrow 5-7 loss to Kenya in the seventh and eighth-place playoff, while Jamaica, making an historic appearance at the tournament, also went down by two goals in their 2-4 loss to Fiji in the 15th-16th-place encounter.
Netherlands were crowned champions following their 5-2 beating of Malaysia in the final.
Earlier in the tournament, Trinidad and Tobago registered a 5-5 stalemate with Australia, defeated Kenya 7-2 and then thumped New Zealand 11-4.
However, the twin island republic lost their quarter-final tie 4-5 against Malaysia, and then lost 5-8 to Egypt in the fifth to eighth-place playoff.
Meanwhile, the Jamaicans lost all six games played, but would have benefitted immensely from their debut outing on the world stage.
The Duvaughn Henlon-coached team first suffered a 2-10 loss to Egypt, but produced a more respectable showing in their 4-6 loss to Switzerland in their second encounter. They were also beaten 13-0 and 15-2 and 8-1 by India, Pakistan and United States respectively.
Fabian Stewart, Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF) president, took heart from the team’s performance and, by extension, top 16 ranking, which he believes is a solid platform to build on going forward.
“The positive of participating in this tournament is that Jamaica is in the top 16 of countries that are playing hockey5s. We earned our spot to come to this tournament and it is clear that we are in the top 16. So we are in the top tier, globally,” said Stewart.
“The players have learnt a lot. The game is played in a particular manner and all the players can actually see the sort of speed they play with.
“We played against top-tier countries that we never got an opportunity to see or play against, but we understand that how we played in parts, we can actually handle them, but we have to be more consistent. But our coaches and staff have seen what is required to operate at this level,” he added.