Ice Hockey in the Delta
Since 2011, the World Girls’ Ice Hockey Weekend has been a global opportunity for girls to try out hockey as a new sport. Women’s ice hockey is one of the fastest growing sports in the world; this is also the case in Hong Kong and Macau, where both countries participated in the World Girls’ Ice Hockey Weekend on October 13, 2014.
Since 2011, the World Girls’ Ice Hockey Weekend has been a global opportunity for girls to try out hockey as a new sport. Women’s ice hockey is one of the fastest growing sports in the world; this is also the case in Hong Kong and Macau, where both countries participated in the World Girls’ Ice Hockey Weekend on October 13, 2014.
Despite Macau’s small population of 587,914 with only 144 ice hockey players, of which 25 are female players, there was an encouraging number of 25 participants at the Girls’ Weekend event. John Ng, general secretary of the Macau Ice Hockey Federation, said that "It’s the most successful day we have had for this event in the last three years, after the event, we invited the girls to join the Macau ice hockey program. Some of the girls said they would like to join our youth training program”.
The Macau federation plans to follow the IIHF program that is being used to develop the elite players and also to build an international size ice hockey arena in the next few years.
The overall atmosphere from both the kids and their parents throughout the evening was filled with fun and enthusiasm. It was ever so rewarding to see the smiles.
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, the second Girls’ Weekend was completed with much success, with a total of 115 participants, of which 85 were new players to the game.
The national team members helped the newcomers from the registration desks to getting equipment to being instructed on the ice and national team head coach Hiroki Wakabayashi and assistant coach Anqi Tan led the sessions with the ice split into three areas for beginners to advanced players. The evening ended with a group photo and balloons for all girls.
“The overall atmosphere from both the kids and their parents throughout the evening was filled with fun and enthusiasm. It was ever so rewarding to see the smiles,” said committee member and women’s national team GM Kevin Leung
“The younger girls definitely had a lot of fun. Some were a little hesitant at first but after a short time seeing their friends on the ice skating around they too were soon having a great time. It felt like a media red carpet event with all the parents pressed up against the glass with their photo and video cameras.”
This year the organizers reached capacity limit and had to stop registration and extending the event to two days was not an option due to the high prices for ice time in Hong Kong.
“This event is an amazing way to promote the sport of ice hockey to the community. The fact that this event took place in a mall also really helped advertise the sport in general,” Leung said. “Also the media reaction was positive and helped reinforce that female players can participate in this sport too and it is not only a fun game but also quite safe with the proper instructions.”
Source: IIHF.com
