A two-tiered Pan Am Cup series, replacing the existing the Pan American Cups, was one of the highlights of the three-day Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) Board of Directors and all committee meetings held in Kingston recently.

The proposal includes the approval of the first Pan Am Challenge tournament, with the first host expected to be “known before the end of the year”.

Lower-ranked countries such as Jamaica will be given the opportunity to play international competition, courtesy of the challenge tournament, because of the “inability of some national associations to gain entry into the Pan Am Cup due to the current qualification system”, according to the PAHF board.

The competitions committee recognised “differences in playing levels between the top-playing national associations and the remaining national associations”.

Under the old system, particularly in women’s hockey, countries such as Argentina, United States, Chile, Canada, and Trinidad & Tobago usually dominated from the Pan Am region.

And they will join the Netherlands, China, Germany, and Australia in high-level competitions based on the ranking system.

The Pan Am Cup and the Pan Am Challenge also takes into consideration “the increase membership of national associations, the lack of interest displayed by some national associations, and the current economic situation and hardship felt by all national associations”.

In this context, the board revised and approved a withdrawal policy for PAHF events and amended the qualification criteria for the 2011 Pan American Games. Withdrawing from an international competition usually comes with drastic penalties and fines.

For the first-tier Pan Am Cup, the PAHF will retain its format of an eight-nation tournament, and they are eligible to qualify for the FIH World Cup and World Cup Qualifiers.

The top six teams will automatically qualify with the other two coming from the Pan Am Challenge which will be held in 2011 or latest 2012 for the 2013 Pan Am Cup.

For the second-tier Pan Am Challenge, the event will be open to all national associations seeking qualification for the Pan Am Cup. The top two from the men and women will qualify, and the nations placing seventh and eighth at the previous Pan Am Cup will join the other nations taking part in the Challenge Cup.

Long-time local hockey stalwart Kay Wilson and president of the Jamaica Olympic Association and the Commonwealth Games Federation Mike Fennell received PAHF President’s Awards.