The world championships anytime anywhere in any sport are always exciting but when they are on they are on the other side of the world there is always an extra level of excitement. The women’s national team has been sent by the IIHF to Beijing, China for the Division 1/B World Championships that will be held from April 6th to the 12th.
If anyone is friends of or follows any of the girls on the numerous social media portals that are out there in 2015 they would have noticed that traveling to China is no easy matter. A filling our visa papers is a must for starters, now multiply this by a hockey team, the people responsible for all of this paperwork have no easy task. The planning of trip like this was started months ago, just around the time that it was announced that Beijing would be hosting the world championships. This was similar to when the men had to travel to Sapparo in 2008 for the world championships, and we all know how that turned out.
Everything was delivered as promised-only late
“We sent everything with DHL," remembers Imre Bagonya the mens physiotherapist. "We packed everything up and they shipped it off as it was originally planned, but at the airport head coach Pat Cortina decided that there would be practice that day, however the equipment was only to arrive the next day. Team leader Zoltán Leleszi was on the telephone trying to figure out where the equipment was and if a normal practice could be conducted. Of course the equipment did not arrive on time therefore the only people who could actually practice were the ones that might have had a pair of skates in their carry on or if they could find a set of skates that fit them.”
These are some of the interesting experiences that one might come across when making the trip to the other side of the world. László Medgyes, equipment manager for the girls can reaffirm this as well with his first message from China.
“We have safely arrived to China will nothing missing only couple of banged up pieces of luggage,” wrote Medgyes.
The other interesting aspect of the trip has been the internet, as a number of western webpages and social media outlets are regulated or blocked. The internet is always a never ending battle between the locals and the government, and its strange for visitors to get used to but luckily the equipment manager might not win the war but he seems to have won the battle. We haven't even talked about the airport yet or all the photos of people sleeping with their mouths open.
Anything Moving is a side dish
“We didn't even connect to the terminal yet and some of the passengers were already sprinting to the door. The flight attendants somehow were able to coax this people back to their seats, which was a big task since most of these people spoke little or no English. After getting into the airport we took a train to the other terminal where we were able to pick up our checked luggage. We meet our team liason as well as someone from the orgainzing comitee, by the time we were on the bus to the hotel some of the eyes were getting visibly heavy. All anyone could think of was taking a nice hot shower before taking on the next challenge of eating dinner,” reported Laci.
In the far east eating a meal can be a real challenge if you are not familiar with the local customs. Number of people will say they like Chinese food or Sushi but these are not even close comparable to what they find in the country of origin. In 2008 the team spent a day in Taiwan before the world championships, in the hotel restaurant they saw a number of creepy crawly creatures, they were told that anything that isn't moving is the main dish and the things that are still alive of the side dishes.
This stop on the way there was actually good because it helped them with the jetlag as they didn't jump right into a seven hour time difference.
It has its own romance
“The organizers were smart in having use spend a day in Taiwan, we did have any problems with the sleep once we were in Sapporo," explained Imre Bagonya also compared to the hotels in Taiwan. "The Japanese hotels were clinically clean.”
Goyang, South Koream were the men were last yearm was not at the same level as Japan, said the guys who had been in both countries and had some travel experience in Asia. When asked to rate these countries in cleanliness Japan was first followed by Korea and China third, were the girls are currently. The fearless equipment managers can elaborate on this more, “In rush hour traffic we were able to experience what the Chinese are truely like behind the wheel on our way to the hotel. We have to keep in mind that this is a completely different world, there probably is some logic to it but we might just see it. The temporary home base, the ice rink is in a pretty strange neighborhood, I can't even quite compare it to anything…”
A world championships that are held in the far east have a certain romantic feeling especially if everything ends up they way they did in Sapporo...