Just a week after International Women’s Day, Barbados has even more to celebrate.
Local women’s hockey umpire Richanne Gaskin was recently upgraded to an international indoor umpire by the FIH (International Hockey Federation), after a review of her performance at the 2017 Indoor Pan American Championships in Guyana last October.
“It feels great. I am ecstatic and very pleased with myself. I can’t say that I have been the first of anything before, so I am very excited to boast about this achievement. My focus now will be to continue from here and climb the ranks,” she said.
With the upgrade, Gaskin made history as Barbados’ first female international indoor hockey umpire, and is only the second Barbadian to be awarded the indoor umpire badge after Shane Lewis.
The 23-year-old resident of Spooners Hill, St Michael, started her hockey career at Combermere School, representing the school team before briefly joining the Combermere School Old Scholars team.
Upon her entry to the University of the West Indies Cave Hill, she joined the UWI Blackbirds Hockey Club where she still plays.
“There aren’t a lot of female umpires in Barbados and from watching the men, it seemed interesting so I wanted to give it a try. I first umpired at a seven-a-side tournament in 2016 and enjoyed it so I wanted to [go] further,” she said. (PR)