Sports | Macau organizes ‘celebratory’ triple hockey tournament

Alberto Lisboa

The Macau Roller-Skating Association is organizing a major hockey event in the region, which will take place at the newly renamed “Taipa Northeast Sports Centre” pavilion (formerly the Sports Complex of the University of Macau) from March 23 to 27.
Antonio Aguiar, the president of the association, which was founded in 1982, told the Times that the tournament would include several categories and competitions. “In this particular tournament, what makes it a little different from others is that we are in fact gathering three different tournaments in one event. There will be one rink hockey and two inline hockey tournaments, with a seniors category and another for under-15s [U15].”
The tournament is expected to gather a total of 16 participating teams with around 300 people involved, including players and other team members. “Those numbers give an idea of the size of the event, which can equal some world-class tournaments taking place in other countries worldwide,” Aguiar added.
As for the purpose of these events, the president of the Roller Skating Association said the tournaments demonstrate “proof of our organizational capacity.” More importantly, however, according to Aguiar, it “is a great celebration of roller hockey, which comes from the fact that we finally have a living space with conditions to practice and play hockey [the sports pavilion of Taipa Northeast Sports Centre].”
“It is a great achievement, although we do not yet have all of the time slots we were aiming for, but it allows us to concentrate almost all of our activities there. It is a long awaited outcome and a good reason for us to celebrate,”  Aguiar said.
The tournament is expected to promote hockey in Macau and also to prepare Macau’s roller hockey team for the upcoming Asian Championship, where the team will try to renew its title of Asian Champions. The local players will have the opportunity to compete with high-level teams after spending almost 18 months without entering a single competition.
Even if the teams invited have been purposely chosen to provide a higher level of competition, Aguiar thinks that Macau’s team will secure a spot in the top three places in this tournament.
As for the in-line hockey, “It will be a big surprise, since it is the first time ever that the U15 team will compete, and this tournament will also be the first competition in Asia organized for the U15 division. It will be an experience for all the teams,” the association’s president said.

A roller hockey goalie

The inline hockey 2016 world championships will be held in Italy in June, and the Macau team intends to better its previous achievement of 14th. Later this year the team will also participate in the Asian Championship, where it hopes to improve on its sixth-­place finish at the last championship.
The Times also spoke to the Macau Roller Hockey team’s coach, Alberto Lisboa. According to Lisboa, the tournament “will be an excellent opportunity, since we do not get many chances to compete,” and will also serve as the team’s preparation for the Asian Championship, which will be held in October this year.
The local coach raised the bar for the team, saying that they will be aiming to finish this tournament in second position, behind “most probably the Basque Country team,” which he expects will be the strongest in the tournament.
“The whole purpose of this tournament is to bring teams that are theoretically stronger than us. If we wanted to win the tournament, it could have been easy but that is not the purpose,” Lisboa said, recalling that, “Any team that plays competitive hockey on a regular basis has an obligation to win the competition from Macau. It is up to us to follow through in spite of such odds.”
“We do this with a lot of sacrifice, dedication and humility, which will lead us to achieve good results in both the Asian and the World Championships. We cannot forget we do not have a normal training routine; we do not have a local championship and many other things that all the other participant countries have that allow them to evolve and practice more,” Lisboa said.
As for the possible surprises of the tournament, the Macau head coach mentioned the “development in the sport of the Australian team, which has two players originally from Spain and Argentina who are an added asset to that team, and also Sesimbra [the Portuguese team] as they compete at a very high level.”
“Since we will play against all the other teams, I think this will be very good in terms of feedback for us to set our own level and give us direction in terms of practice for future competitions. Our goal is to try to finish second.”
The tournament is set to kick-off on Wednesday, March 23, with the first game scheduled for 2 p.m. between the teams of Chinese Taipei and Sesimbra, with the competition to end on Sunday, March 27, after the game between Macau and Basque Country at 6.30 p.m.
António Aguiar notes that “there will be seven games per day and lots of family entertainment,” expressing his hope that the events will be well attended in Taipa. “Definitely this will be a great help to develop the sport in the region,” he concluded.