WUHAN, Central China, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Central China city Wuhan is
likely to transform its only hockey field into a football training ground after
the ongoing City Games due to unpopularity of the sport, said an official on
Tuesday.
"The field will be used for women's football training unless China's sport
administration decides to keep it for some hockey programs," said Gu Jiong, an
official with the City Games hockey committee.
The field, made of grass imported from Italy, cost the host city Wuhan
400,000 U.S. dollars but only eight out of the 74 participating cities sent
their women's hockey teams to the quadrennial, ten-day games.
It was reasonable that hockey would give way to football as the former was
not popular at all in the city, said a city official Hu Zhenxiong.
A coach surnamed Jia from northeast China's Dalian, however, said she had
to train her team on a bare land sometimes in winter when the hockey field iced
over.
"It would be great if we have a hockey field in Wuhan where it is much
warmer in winter," she added.
Although Chinese women's hockey team was on the rise internationally, the
sport was far from popular at home, with players lacking training facilities,
said Du Zhaocai, vice president of the Chinese Hockey Association.
"We are trying to make hockey more popular in China because the sport can't
develop without people liking it," said Lei Jun, director of handball, hockey,
baseball and softball administration center of General Administration of Sport.
China had launched a 6-player hockey program in some high schools and set
up training centers in nine provinces to prepare young players for future
Olympic Games, he said.
