So a few months back, we came up with our first series. The goal of the first series was to introduce women's ice hockey in Malaysia through conversations with team captains of the Malaysia National Women's Ice Hockey team, Illina Rothi and Adilah Junid.
In this series, Illina and Adilah spoke about what it takes to lead a team of 20 multi-talented and athletic group of women into winning games, being mentally and physically fit, playing as 20 separate players but winning as ONE and what it means to carry the nation's flag for Ice Hockey.
Read Leading The Pack With Illina Rothi and Adilah Junid
Last March, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), (The federation who organizes and govern Ice Hockey events in Winter Olympics, Asian Winter Games and World Championships, you know, The very federation who brings professional ice hockey players the likes of Sidney Crosby, Pavel Datsyuk, McDavid and Ovechkin to battle in one rink for their countries every year)...look them up, partnered with Malaysia Ice Hockey Federation to host the 2018 IIHF Women's Challenge Cup of Asia, right here in tropical Kuala Lumpur.
The tournament brings together 4 ice hockey national teams to compete in Division 1. This year Malaysia faced United Arab Emirates, Philippines, and India.
Guess who were the champions?
Our very own Malaysian girls all born and bred, won every game in the tournament and ended with GOLD against UAE with a convincing 5-3 win. Check game stats here and learn who scored, who assisted, who's the scoring leader, face-off leaders, penalty calls, goalkeeper shots-on-goal and much more.
Coming back to the series, we asked Illina about leading the pack to victory in every game. This chat we had with her was about 4 months before the tournament started.
The full team roster wasn't out yet and that team captains has yet to be nominated at the time too.
But we had an inkling feeling that Illina and Adilah was going to lead the team for the 2017/2018 season for the third time. True enough, come draft selection day, Illina, Adilah and Karen Chong (new alternate captain) was nominated.
Illina stuck to her convictions on game victories, the team eventually surpassed every game with finesse and came out CHAMPIONS on home ice.
More from the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey Women's Challenge Cup of Asia.
Image: Snooke Photography | Illina Rothi skating with the Malaysian flag after winning the Gold medal game against UAE.
Image: David Jong | Victory faces after scoring a goal.
Image: David Jong | With every game we won, we get to sing NEGARAKU. This photo was taken after team Malaysia won their first game against India, winning 5-0.
Image: O'Brien Morgan | On 3, MALAYSIAROAR!!!
So some people might ask, ok so what if you won GOLD? What's next?
Ding, ding ding! They want to keep competing. But lets face it, the girls you see in the photos will come and go, and so will talents, and skills. — just like any other athletes when their sports career end, or when a CEO steps down. Reaching out to as many young girls and women is the key for the growth of this sport.
One word — Successors.
The bigger goal is to train and develop high-performing female athletes in Malaysia so team Malaysia can compete in higher level tournaments such as the Winter Olympics, Asian Winter Game, and World Championships someday.
Check out what team manager, Hilda Zamri has to say about the development of the sport on Astro's Nadi@1
About the author: If you were wondering who wrote this, I did. Yasmin Kamal. I'm a creative content writer, a travel blogger at yasminuurya.co, team leader and former alternate captain of the Malaysia National Women's Ice Hockey team, and a huge ice hockey fan (ok, I think it's pretty darn obvious).
I hope you've enjoyed insights of women's ice hockey in Malaysia as much as I have enjoyed writing about it.
I know, that ice hockey is totally new to you and you probably won't know who in the world is Sidney Crosby and his world class athlete gang I mentioned.
But this is exactly why Ice Hockey & Her exist. It's for you to get to know this sport a little more than just football and badminton. So I hope you stick around.
More stories and conversations in the coming weeks.