In an historic first for the kingdom, a six-nation women’s ice hockey tournament starts from today at an ice rink in a popular recreational spot in Manama.
The Bahrain Ice Hockey Women’s Gathering, a two-day tournament, is the first-ever international women’s competition to be held in the kingdom and features six teams – five from the GCC, including Bahrain, and one from Russia – and has been organised by the Bahrain Ice Hockey Club (BIHC), the only officially recognised such club in the kingdom.
“We’re really happy to be hosting the first-ever international women’s ice hockey tournament in Bahrain,” BIHC chairman Abdulla Al Qassimi, 41, told the GDN.
“We’ve held several men’s competitions in the kingdom over the past few years but never had the opportunity to organise one for women before.
“The idea came from Samih Hijazi, our development manager, after he travelled to Russia for a hockey camp. There, he met a friend who owns an ice hockey academy and had started a girls’ team. That gentleman was interested in bringing that team over to Bahrain to play a couple of friendly games.
“When Samih came back, he discussed the idea with me and the BIHC board members. One thing led to another and we decided to organise this women’s tournament, thinking it would put Bahrain on the ice hockey map, and decided to share our thoughts with our friends in the ice hockey set-ups in Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
“Fortunately, everyone liked the idea and agreed to come. The tournament will be played in a round-robin format across two days with each team playing the other five once and the side heading the points table at the end of the competition being declared the winner.”
Bahrain head coach Petr Dubsky told the GDN that the competition would prove to be a boost for the women’s game in the kingdom but added that, given the lack of training opportunities for his team, he could consider a third place finish for the Bahrain team to be satisfactory.
“I think finishing in third place would be quite satisfactory,” Dubsky, 44, who juggles his duties as the general manager of the Diplomat Radisson Hotel with his mandate as the ice hockey coach for both the men’s and women’s teams, explained.
“We know there are some very tough opponents such as the UAE and Kuwait, who are very, very good. We might have a chance against Oman and Saudi Arabia.
“We should also be able to do well against the Russians. Their level of play is quite similar to ours so, hopefully, we should be able to make an impact in our encounter with them.”
Dubsky, who played the game competitively in his native Czech Republic until he was 18, added that he hoped the exposure gained from the tournament would result in more funds being available for the sport and lead to better facilities.
At the moment, the BIHC rents the ice rink – which is half the size of an international standard rink – at the recreational outlet for every event and tournament it holds with the games being restricted to a three-on-three format, instead of six-players-a-side, because of the smaller playing area.
“As you know, we have a small but very good facility and we’ve been able to invite five teams to come and play in this tournament,” Dubsky continued.
“Once the kingdom has proper ice hockey facilities, we’ll be able to host different kinds of games and even bigger tournaments.
“But, for now, we were only able to start preparing for this tournament three weeks ago. The girls hadn’t played any hockey for the past five, six months and that’s because we don’t have any resources; we didn’t have the funds, so it was difficult to do so.
“But over the last three weeks, we have had a couple of really good practice sessions. The girls are very enthusiastic and have a very strong, fighting spirit – they want to show to the people of Bahrain that there is not only the sport of ice hockey in the kingdom but women playing ice hockey to a very good level!
“But, even all this would not be possible without a couple of sponsors who are actively supporting us to try and develop the game of ice hockey in Bahrain.”
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