The local ice hockey team has ended its participation in the 9th Asian Winter Games, which are taking place in Harbin, China.
Finishing 13th out of 14 teams, the local squad concluded the games with a 4-3 win over Bahrain, after some disappointing results, notably in the first two matches when the local team was defeated by Hong Kong (26-1) and Turkmenistan (26-0).
Clearly unfit to participate in such a high-level competition, the Macau team conceded 15 goals in the third period of the match against Turkmenistan.
In the third match, against India, the local team, despite losing 4-2, managed to balance the game more against an opponent at their level.
The local team was led by Edison Sou, who scored three of Macau’s seven goals in the tournament, with the other four coming from Argus Hong, Yeung Ho Yin, Katsuyoshi Shinoda, and Herminio Cheng.
Although the results were not impressive, Macau’s participation in the competition should be viewed in light of the fact that the city has only about 100 players and a single, inadequate ice rink that does not meet minimum training standards.
Before the games, the team captain, Leong Chon Kong, had already admitted in an interview with the media that the squad would be going up against some of the best teams in Asia, making the task even harder.
Still, Leong expressed his hope that Macau could win against nations with similar resources, such as India and Bahrain.
According to Leong, the goal was to win at least one game, which was finally achieved.
“Against other teams, [such as Hong Kong and Turkmenistan], we’re not focused on the result, but on achieving our best performance, learning more, and hopefully scoring some goals.”
In addition to the poor conditions for practicing the sport in Macau, the local team also faced the hurdle of having to train in Zhuhai during the preparation stage for the Winter Games, since the only rink, located at Future Bright Amusement Park next to Camões Garden, is under renovation.
In the same interview, Hong noted issues with training in Zhuhai. First, they could only do one training session per week, and second, the commuting time was too long.
“Training in Zhuhai takes over an hour [of commuting] just to get there from Taipa,” he said.
The 9th Asian Winter Games were officially inaugurated last Friday (Feb. 7) and will run for a week until Feb. 14. The Chief Executive, Sam Hou Fai, attended the opening ceremony.
The 28 athletes of the ice hockey team were the only representatives from Macau at the games, which included 64 events in 11 different sports.
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