Ball hockey players head to World Championships

(CNS): The Cayman Islands Ball Hockey Association’s select World Cup team is off to the 8th World Senior Ball Hockey Championships to be held on June 13th – 20th in Pilsen, Czech Republic. The team, lead by General Manager Mark Thompson and Head Coach Bassel Durzi are excited about Team Cayman’s 3rd appearance in the World Championships. The team has been training hard over the past six months dedicating themselves to training as a team three times a week along with various personal training regiments. “This is the best team we have ever entered into a World Cup competition and as such we are looking to improve on our 6th place B-Pool finish,” Thompson said.

Team Cayman’s task won’t come easy as they are expecting the toughest competition in the history of the championships in Pilsen. Cayman is in the C-pool along with Pakistan, Gold medal B-Pool finalist in 2007; Bermuda, Caribbean Cup defending champions; and Finland, an unknown as they are competing for the first time in the World Senior Ball Hockey Championships. “We know the competition will be tough but our guys have been working hard to raise their fitness levels and feel confident that we can compete at this level” says team captain Darryl Hather.

Team Cayman will face-off on Friday night against Team Canada, four time defending world champions, for an exhibition match to ready both teams for the tournament. This is the first time Team Cayman has played an exhibition game prior to the tournament and team officials are hoping it will give their players the added motivation they need to be successful against Team Pakistan, their first game opponents.