Hockey brightens up for London 2012

The first of the new blue and pink Olympic hockey pitches was unveiled yesterday, with players and coaches hailing it a success and not a brightly- coloured gimmick.

Britain’s women’s hockey team trained on the state-of-the-art blue pitch which is complete with pink surrounds at the Olympic park.

London 2012 will be the first international competition to use the bright colour combination, officially named as London Blue and London Pink, and a yellow ball will be used with the aim to make the sport easier to watch both at the stadium and on television. Britain’s captain Kate Walsh, 31, of Stockport, believes the new pitch reflects the nature of the modern game.

“It updates the sport. Maybe with the (traditional) green, people can think of the old jolly hockey sticks thing and St Trinian’s but this just makes it new and modern. Hockey is a modern and fast-paced sport. On camera, you can see the ball better. It is sharper.”

Jason Lee, head coach of the GB men’s hockey team, also hailed the new-look pitch as a breakthrough in the sport.

He said: “The ball contrasts really well against the blue and it takes us away from the history of field hockey, from grass, and into the modern era. It’s quite obvious that you can see the ball much more distinctly against a blue background than you could on a green background and the players don’t actually notice the difference in terms of playing which was one of the concerns for us. I really like the blue.”

The 16,000-seater hockey complex, at the northern end of the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, includes two pitches – one for competition and one for warm up.

It will also host both the five and seven-a-side 2012 Paralympic football competitions.

Organisers believe the pitches, the only full outdoor venue on the Olympic Park, will become a prominent landmark.

A similar polyethylene fibre pitch, except for the colour, has been laid for the British hockey team to train on at Bisham Abbey.

Being hard wearing and able to cope with UV degradation are among its key features.

Walsh said: “The first thing that hits you is the brightness of the pink but once you are on it you really do not notice.

“You look at it (the colours) but after a few minutes you are just on a hockey pitch. I think that will be a good thing for when we turn up at the Olympics – it will be somewhere where we played before.

“There will still be the excitement of the Olympics buzz but we will feel like we know what we are doing on this pitch.”