Twenty-six teams are set to grace the  Mombasa County National Hockey Festival set for at the Mombasa Golf Club this weekend.

The event being organized by  Mombasa County in conjunction with the Kenya Hockey Union, will see 16 men's and 10 women's teams take part in the event. 

The men's category will feature the University of Nairobi, Wazalendo H.C., Wazalendo Masters, Old Guards, Kenya Police, USIU, Pioneers, El Nino, Black Tankers and Black Tigers

Others are Bungoma Masters, K-Town Pirates, Mvita XI, Mombasa Sports Club Orcas, St. Charles Lwanga, and Simah Diaspora.

In the women's category, Amira sailors lead the pack and will fight it out with DFG Wolverines, the University of Nairobi, USIU Ladies, Swans and St Charles Lwanga, Springboks Ladies, Wazalendo, Mombasa Sports Club (MSC) Maven Ladies and Slayers. 

Each team has registered  18 players and two officials to represent them in the festival that has been taking place every October for the last 10 years.

 Mombasa Hockey County president, Oliver Mascaren, said the objective of the festival is to bring up the standards of hockey in Kenya.

''This tournament has been taking place for the last 10 years and has always attracted many teams. Together with the federation, our aim is to bring up the standards of hockey in Kenya,'' said Mascarenhas.

Mascarenhas stated that he hopes the weather will favour the festival. ''The weather in Mombasa in the past few days has been really hot but we are hoping this doesn't affect us.  It will be tough to play in this kind of heat, especially with 60 fixtures lined up''