The national women’s national ice hockey team last week stunned fans as well as themselves when they finished second in Group B of the Ice Hockey Women’s World Championships’ second division.
Having just qualified for Group B last year, Taiwan’s team of mostly college students in their early 20s and a high-school senior won four of their five games in Madrid from March 17 to Friday last week.
Taiwan defeated Turkey, Romania, New Zealand and Iceland, but lost 6-1 to hosts Spain, who topped Group B to qualify for the higher-tier Group A tournament next year.
Photo courtesy of the Chinese Taipei Ice Hockey Federation
For a nation that barely sees snow, the national team’s success is a true Cinderella story, Chinese Taipei Ice Hockey Federation general secretary Woden Sun said yesterday in a telephone interview.
The second-place finish came as an even bigger surprise, given that the team was only formed in 2014 and averages only three hours of practice a week on ice, he said.
“There is only one standard ice rink in Taiwan — in Taipei Arena — and the women can only practice there after it closes at 9:30pm once a week,” Sun said.
On other occasions, they practice on roller blades, he said.
Sun credited to the team’s success to the members’ dedication and to the head coach’s scouting of opponents to develop good strategies.
The team now has a 12-1 record in international competitions since its founding.
The world championships are divided into three tiers: the top division, division I and division II, where Taiwan competes.
Making the championships was a challenge in itself, as the team had to first win two qualification tournaments in Asia in 2016, Sun said.
Hopefully, the team’s performance would get more people to pay closer attention to the national ice hockey team, he said, adding that the next goal is to qualify for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
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