CHENNAI: Former Indian PC expert Rupinder Pal Singh said the other day that hockey will lose its charm if the drag-flick rule while taking penalty-corners is modified. However, Elisabeth Fuerst, the Asian Hockey Federation event and sports director, made it clear on Sunday that nothing on those lines will happen anytime soon.
"The proposed new penalty corner rule will not be implemented anytime soon," Fuerst said. She added that it will undergo several phases of trial before being implemented. "It's a very early-stage trial. It's not a rule that will be implemented in the next couple of weeks or months. If it turns out to be successful in its early stages, there will be more phases of trial before it ever gets implemented," the AHF official said.
FIH, AHF conducting three-day training for Indian umpires, technical officials
The International Hockey Federation (FIH) and the AHF are together organizing a three-day certification course for 18 Indian technical officials and 22 umpires here. The FIH-AHF Level-1 course began on Saturday, and is designed to educate the candidates about the rules and train them to officiate in national and international-level tournaments in the future. Fuerst and Sasidharan Vasudhevan - another AHF trainer - are here to conduct the programme, and they are happy with the candidates' prior knowledge. "The candidates are already at a high level. They get plenty of opportunities in national competitions as well," said Fuerst.
Vivek Soni and Shadma Shahid, a husband-wife duo from Lucknow who are attending the training, described the programme as "the ideal platform for us to upskill and be ready for future tournaments".
