Hampered by the extreme cold conditions in West Vancouver Canada, the T&T Women’s hockey team was scheduled to go after an overall fifth-place finish in Pool B of the FIH Women’s World League Round Two Qualifiers, team manager Garth Baptiste said yesterday.
The team went down in their earlier two matches of the qualifiers 9-0 to Chile and 6-0 to Mexico on Sunday and were up against an equally tough Canadian outfit last night which according to Baptiste was due to better preparations under the cold conditions. “The weather here has really played an important role against the team because the highest temperature we are playing in is around 7’degrees celcius which is very very cold. When we analyze the game we realise that the first 15 minutes it takes us to get into the game because of the temperature and then to get warmed-up, so it is something they have to get used to” Baptiste said.
He noted “Some of the teams have been out here two weeks now, and they have played test matches against other teams. Teams such as Canada has been out here, Australia for three-four weeks preparations, so I think it’s a case of preparation for a lot of the teams coming into these very windy conditions which haven’t done quite well for us.”
In spite of this however Baptiste said the mood in his camp was an upbeat one and they will be going after a fifth place finish as they have entered the tournament as the lowest ranked team. According to Baptiste it was not realistic for them to qualify for the quarter finals but will be in the fifth, sixth and seventh play-offs.