“With its excellent performance, the Hong Kong women’s ice hockey team outperformed its best results in the past and reached new heights,” Yeung said in a statement, without commenting on a song mix-up that occurred in an earlier men’s game.

The women’s team defeated Estonia 3-0 in the final match of the group A event of the world championship’s Division III on Sunday, Hong Kong time, securing 13 points with four wins out of five games.

Lithuania, who had been leading the group and had defeated Hong Kong earlier, lost to Ukraine 1-2 in their final group match and dropped to third place with 11 points, while the latter finished second with 12 points.

The unprecedented victory has secured the team’s promotion to a higher tier – Division IIB – for next year’s world championship.

In a taped message sent to the media, team leader Kwan, who is also the general secretary of the Hong Kong Ice Hockey Association, thanked players for their efforts and pledged to ensure organisers had the right song before athletes took to the stage for medals.

“I want to tell the government that we know the national anthem is more important than everything. The chief executive and the officials need not to be worried. I will double-check before the ceremony,” Kwan said.

The athletes later sung the Chinese national anthem at the gold medal ceremony.

“I am so happy for what they have achieved. No matter how hard it is, it is worth it,” she said.

Kwan, who described herself as “overly excited” after Sunday’s win, added that the association only had three full-time staff members attending to players.

Keira Mok Hei-lam won best goalie of the tournament, while Renee Ng was named as the team’s most valuable player.

In another message sent to the press on Monday, Kwan said the competition organiser had again downloaded an incorrect song on their own. It was only discovered when she made a request to check the anthem before the match, a new measure that the association had proposed to prevent hiccups.

“The person who received the USB drive [containing the national anthem] was not the one playing the song … while the one playing it chose to download it online,” she said. “If he did not allow me to check and the wrong song was played again, I would have no idea how to explain it.”

Kwan said checking the national anthem had become her first priority after arriving at the rink for any competition.

“We could not afford to make ourselves ashamed again, I only felt relieved after the full song was played at the ceremony.”

The athletes are set to return on Tuesday and will speak to the press once they are back in Hong Kong.

The city’s ice hockey association risks losing government funding as a penalty after a protest song linked to the 2019 anti-government movement was played instead of “March of the Volunteers” for 10 seconds following the men’s team victory over Iran. The blunder occurred at the 2023 Ice Hockey World Championship’s third division in Bosnia and Herzegovina on February 28.

The Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, which has been in a war of words with the association over the incident, also congratulated and thanked the women’s team.

“We will continue to fully support Hong Kong athletes’ training and matches, as well as working together with various national sports associations to improve the level of sports development,” it said in a statement.

Tensions flared after the sports federation last Tuesday said it had begun the process of suspending the association’s membership, adding the group had shown an “unwillingness and evasiveness” to face facts following the blunder in February.

The federation also said it was unclear whether the men’s team gave a hard copy of the anthem to event organisers, a move which could have prevented the blunder. It gave the ice hockey association a month to provide a written explanation and a road map for improving corporate governance.

The city government also threw its weight behind the federation’s decision, saying it would consider reducing funding for the association as punishment if the federation proceeded to revoke its membership.

Following the saga, former financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah voiced support for the city’s ice hockey team on social media.

“Ice hockey is not popular in Hong Kong and does not receive much support. It’s definitely not easy for these young players to undergo hard training and represent the city in the competition, despite all the unfavourable circumstances,” he wrote on Sunday night.

“We should support them, as well as all the local athletes with all of our heart.”