FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup 2022 at the Wagener Stadium, Amstelveen, The Netherlands
Successful synthetic hockey turf in a sustainable design
Preparing and organising large international events is becoming ever more difficult, time-consuming and expensive, and sport is no exception. One possible solution to this problem is to split the workload between two hosts. For the FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup 2022, these were the Netherlands and Spain. The tournament took place at the Estadi Olímpic in Terrassa, Spain, and at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen, a suburb of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Teams from 16 countries took part in the tournament, which was played from 1st to 17th July 2022. The FIH Hockey World Cup 2022 marks the 15th tournament of the quadrennial world championships for national women’s hockey teams. Polytan is proud to be a “Global Partner” of this event.
The Wagener Stadium in the Netherlands serves as a multi-purpose arena that primarily hosts field hockey games, but also lacrosse. The competition ground, which was built in 1938, has space for 9,000 visitors and a long history of athletic highpoints behind it. For example, in the past, the Wagener Stadium has hosted major tournaments including the men’s Ice Hockey World Championships in 1973, multiple EuroHockey Nations Championships and the Champions Trophy.
20 of the 44 matches of the FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup 2022 were played at the Wagener Stadium, including two of the quarter-finals. In the end, defending champions, the Netherlands, won the tournament for the ninth time after beating Argentina 3:1 in the final. Our Poligras Platinum GT turf was laid at the Wagener Stadium just for the World Cup. This successful hockey turf is a sustainable further development of our tried-and-tested Poligras Platinum CoolPlus, which was used as the official turf for the hockey tournament at the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016. What makes Poligras Platinum GT sustainable? The filaments contain at least 20% polyethylene (PE) made from renewable raw materials. The turf is manufactured in Germany using 100% green energy. The result is an ecological yet attractively priced synthetic hockey turf with a reduced CO2 footprint that has thoroughly impressed players, coaches and officials alike. What’s more, the integrated CoolPlus function has a cooling effect and reduces water consumption.
The Polytan PreciTex texturing technology ensures permanent crimping of the turf. This results in a multidirectional, closed surface – the perfect conditions for fast, precise play with optimal ball-rolling properties. Our hockey turf was installed at the Wagener Stadium in the colour London Blue.
After the Hockey World Cup, the playing field was dismantled and is now located at AMHC Upward, the largest hockey club in Arnheim. The Dutch national hockey team trains on the club’s pitches, especially as they are close to the Papendal National Training Centre. Our Poligras Platinum GT from Amstelveen will be used for weekly training by the representative teams for Dutch youth in Arnheim. And of course, we absolutely insisted on installing a plaque to commemorate that on this turf, the Netherlands won Gold in the 2022 World Cup.
