Need more expert training, infra to support ice hockey in India: Angmo

Sharing that how more women are taking up the sport of Ice Hockey and how the bronze won by the Indian women ice hockey team in the IIHF Asia Cup in Al Ain, UAE, motivates the ice hockey players in the country, Diskit Chonzom Angmo, Indian Ice hockey team player, laid emphasis on the need of more expert training as well as infrastructure to support the sport in India.

Angmo, who was inChandigarh, for a Sports Literature Festival, shared her thoughts while interacting with Harjinder Singh, founder, Indian Ice Hockey Association (IIHA), and Gurpreet Singh Bakshi, president, Indian Ice Hockey Association (IIHA) at a city hotel on Saturday.

“My inspiration came from spotting an American woman playing in a men’s ice hockey team in Leh.

So I along with other players formed the Ladakh Winters Sports Club and we would practise ice hockey at the local made arenas.

The bronze medal in last year’s IIHF Asia Cup in Al Ain, UAE, by the Indian women’s ice hockey team was the first by the Indian women’s team and the historic achievement motivated the whole team as well as the youngsters aspiring to be part of the Indian women’s ice hockey team a lot.

With events like Khelo India Winter Games, focus has also been on winter sports and what we need right now is more infrastructure like ice hockey rinks to train throughout the year with climate change in the Himalayas also playing its part in terms of reducing the natural training days for us,” said Angmo.

Harjinder Singh, who is founder of the Indian Ice Hockey Association (IIHA) and a former international level player, shared how ice hockey players only get two-three months to train and give their best at the national level as well as the international arena despite limited facilities.

“There were days, when players would train with rented equipment with only a small time frame in the whole year to train.

While facilities and the support by the government in pushing Winter Sports in the form of Khelo India Winter Games have helped our cause, we need more and more indoor ice skate rinks like the one opened in Dehradun, so that Indian ice hockey players get to train the whole year,” said Singh.

IIHA president Gurpreet Singh Bakshi shared how youngsters in places like Kaza in Himachal Pradesh and also players from states like Telangana and Rajasthan are emerging at the national level.

“While there has been an increase in participation of ice hockey players from places like Kaza in Himachal Pradesh and also from cities like Chandigarh, players from states like Telangana and Rajasthan too have done well in the Khelo India Winter Games too.

With proper exposure and support, India can produce world-level winter athletes,” said Bakshi during the session.

Skeet shooters like Paris Olympian Raiza Dhillon and multiple World Cup medallist Ganemat Sekhon too talked about their experiences of competing in a sport like skeet shooting.

“As women shooters, we wanted to show the world that we are no less than anybody and our families as well as the coaching system have always supported us,” said Sekhon.

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