Despite the national women’s hockey team failing in their bid to make it to the International Hockey Federation (FIH) Hockey 5s World Cup, Technical Director Dr Michelle Holt believes the players improved significantly throughout the qualifiers and will be competitive in future tournaments.

The Jamaican team — of Brean Blackwood, Jonel Witter, Sauwana Gordon, Imauny Linton, Demi Nicholson, Ajhniaque Williams, Kareme Hudson, Aaliyah James, Lorie-Ann McIntosh, and Captain Kamile Griffiths — finished fifth at the just-concluded Pan American Confederation Hockey 5s World Cup Qualifiers here in Jamaica.

The United States took home the Hockey 5s Cup, beating Uruguay in the final. Paraguay finished third after getting the better of Trinidad and Tobago in the third/fourth play-off game. Only the top-three finishers qualify for next year’s Hockey 5s World Cup, which will be held in Muscat, Oman, from January 24-31.

“Well, you know, this tournament and how they [players] kept improving has given them a big boost of confidence, and I am seeing a lot more things are possible now,” Dr Holt told the Jamaica Observer. “They [players] didn’t believe; they always doubted themselves because of previous failures as they have been lacking in confidence, and as they perform better and better with each game, the confidence and the swag are back. I think this set of girls will do well in the CAC Games and will begin to move Jamaica back up the ladder,” Dr Holt added.

Jamaica overcame Brazil 3-1 to finish fifth in the tournament, and Dr Holt said it was sweet relief for the team after they drew 2-2 in the group stages.

“It was pure joy. It was unfettered pleasure because they knew from the start that they should have won the game against Brazil in the group stages, and they [officials] had taken away goals that we had scored, leading us to where we had ended up.

“The ladies wanted to prove that the outcome should have been what it was, and so they felt a sense of relief and a sense of justification that we should have won that game, and we did it and we proved that to everybody, and I think it was just fantastic,” she said.

Dr Holt believes that with the players’ confidence restored, female hockey in the country might reclaim its former grandeur.

“One of our goals was to improve our ranking, and we did just that. Another of our aims was to continue scoring goals since we’ve always been a country that doesn’t score, and that’s what kept us down.

“We will defend, but we won’t score, and so to have scored three like that against Brazil, was awesome. The confidence is back, and we will take women’s hockey back where it used to be, at the pinnacle of the Caribbean,” explained Dr Holt.

She believes that making Hockey 5s a regular feature on the local calendar is one approach to revitalise the sport.

“You see this game, the Hockey 5s, that’s it. Hockey 5s in every parish, and if not in every parish, in every county, so that schoolgirls can play the game, as in the west we have fantastic athletes, and also in the centre of the island we know we have fantastic athletes.

“Jamaica is full of athletes, and if we can get them exposed to this and they choose this as a sport, then we know that when we bring that kind of talent that we have as speed and that aggression to the sport,” Dr Holt ended.