Empire rink ready for fiery ice hockey action
FINALLY, the ice hockey rink at the Empire City Mall is ready for the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.
The 20 national players trained at the newly-built rink yesterday and national coach Kristof Kovago of Hungary has given it the thumbs up.
Malaysia Ice Hockey Federation (MIHF) deputy president Haniff Mahmood even described the 500-seater new rink as “the best in South-East Asia and one of the best in Asia”.
“It even has state-of-the-art changing rooms. We must thank the Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin for helping us get ice hockey into the SEA Games programme and also to have a new rink,” said the former national player.
The rink was ready last month and the national players trained for six days from July 3-8. But a few changes had to be made for it to conform to the guidelines of the international standards.
This is the first time that ice hockey has been included in the SEA Games programme.
The other teams taking part are Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore.
There is only one gold medal on offer in ice hockey.
“We definitely want our team to finish on the podium as this will give us a chance to feature in the 2019 SEA Games,” said Haniff.
MIHF president Datuk Lee Hwa Beng said that 30 officials from the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) as well as from Asia would be here for the Games.
“They are excited that a winter sport is being held in a summer Games for the first time.
“We will have an opening ceremony for the new rink on Sunday at 3pm before the start of the round- robin match between Malaysia and Indonesia at 4pm,” said Hwa Beng, who also advised fans to bring along jackets as “it is very cold at the rink”.
Entrance for the ice hockey matches is free.