STI is proud to announce its successful bid to supply and full-construct the London 2012 Olympic hockey pitches (30 Mar 2011)

Blue is the colour for Hockey at London 2012

 The London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) today announced that the hockey pitches to be used at the Hockey Centre at the Olympic Park will be blue.  Over 600,000 spectators will be cheering on as the world’s top Hockey players battle it out on blue pitches for the first time ever at an Olympic Games.

Dr Martin Schlegel, Managing Director of Advanced Polymer Technology Australasia, the Melbourne based manufacturer, stated that “POLIGRAS is the paradigm for the future of the sport by combining vibrant new colour schemes, environmentally responsible technology and exacting playability characteristics demanded by elite hockey athletes”.

“With the blue pitch surface for the London 2012 Olympics, STI design options provide world hockey with the opportunity of pushing the boundaries”, Stephen Niven, Managing Director of STI said, he continued by adding “STI is proud to be part of this exciting enhancement in world hockey, not since the introduction of synthetic hockey surfaces has there been such an brilliant development.  It has been an absolute pleasure working with such progressive and creative persons on the LOCOG and FIH teams”.

This will be the first Olympic and FIH World Level event to be played on a different colour to the traditional green.  Historically, hockey was always played on natural grass and when the move was made to synthetic turf pitches in the 1970s green was adopted to replicate the traditional playing environment.  But the days of top level international hockey being played on grass pitches are gone.  The game is now high paced, dynamic and demands incredible levels of fitness and skill, particularly as this will also be the first Olympic Games since the introduction of the “Self Pass” rule, which has only served to make the game even quicker.  These developments have been made possible with the introduction of synthetic turf pitches which in turn enables the introduction of other colours.