Poligras

2023 Men’s FIH Hockey World Cup uses turf made of sugar cane

The 2023 Men’s FIH Hockey World Cup is being held in Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, India from 13 to 29 January 2023.

The World Cup features 16 teams and is being played at two magnificent hockey stadiums. The 16,000 seat Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar hosted the previous Men’s World Cup in 2018 and is one of the top 10 biggest hockey stadiums in the world. The brand new Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium in Rourkela has been built for the tournament. It is hockey’s biggest all-seater stadium (20,000). 

For Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, Poligras Platinum GT turfs have been installed at both stadiums, as well as for the training turfs. The installation was completed by Polytan’s long-term partner, Rajiv K. Sharma.

This turf is another green technology (GT) advance for hockey. Poligras Platinum was developed for the Rio Olympic Games and is one of hockey’s most popular turfs. The GT variation features 20% polyethylene made from sugar cane rather than fossil fuels.

This sugar cane green technology was first developed for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and is being incorporated throughout the Poligras turf range. The latest advance is the Poligras Paris GT zero, which is hockey’s first carbon zero hockey turf and will be used for the Paris Olympic Games.