Walcz on Wednesday welcomes the women’s EuroHockey5s Championship with three places on the line for next year’s World Cup in Oman.
A total of 10 teams will be in action at the championship, split into two pools of 5 teams in the initial round. Georgia, Poland, Switzerland, Türkiye, and Wales are placed in Pool A, while Austria Netherlands, Slovakia, Sweden and Ukraine will compete in Pool B. The competition gets underway on 28 June at 10am local time (CEST) with Ukraine taking on Sweden in the Pool A encounter.
Each team in the pool stage will play the other teams in their pool once. The top two teams in both pools will qualify for the semi-finals. Teams placed third and fourth in the pool stage will compete in 5-8 place classification while the bottom placed teams in both pools will fight for 9th place.
Following the semi-finals, the losing teams will play in the bronze medal match. The two finalists and the bronze medalist will qualify for the FIH Hockey5s Women’s World Cup 2024.
Every game will be live-streamed via www.eurohockeytv.org
*** Find out more about the teams here ***
As this is the first edition of the women’s EuroHockey5s Championship, experience levels of the competing sides are all very much at the start of their journeys.
For Switzerland, they are one of the few side with senior international knowledge in this new format. Indeed, their country is one of the original homes for this variation. Downtown Lausanne – the home city of the FIH and IOC – was the first hosts for the FIH Hockey5s event last summer.
“We did not know what to expect from the event,” said Constance van Asselt, manager of their team. “Hockey5s was not unknown to us as our Under 16 boys and girls had already taken part in European Championships.
Team Switzerland
“This was not just a new event, though; it was in a totally new setting outside, we were going to play against countries from over the world. For a small hockey country as Switzerland is, only a few players had this experience from indoor hockey.
“We were eager, but we also had reactions ‘why do you want to play H5s?’, ‘It will ruin our field hockey’, ‘much to dangerous’, ‘that is not hockey’…
“As a team, we wanted to experience it and be part of something new. We had to try it out and it was great. The setting on the Promenade downtown Lausanne, between the Main Road and the Harbor, the mountains on the background and a crowd that did not know Hockey5s but was cheering enthusiastically. It was an experience the players will never forget.”
From that side, Sofie Stomps, Carina Zimmermann, Sarah Zepf, Diana Hoxhaj and Ursina Fazis played in that tournament in Lausanne where they finished in second place. Hoxhaj also has a silver medal from the Eurohockey5s championship U16 in Walcz 2019.
Coach Mathias Schaeben says of the event: “Hockey5s is an interesting format that is very attractive and fast, especially for the spectators. With the possibility of qualifying for the 2024 World Cup in Oman, the European Championship in Walcz offers a great opportunity to strive for something big and of course pushes this event“.
Captain Carina Zimmermann adds: „We had our first experience with Hockey5s at the FIH promo tournament in Lausanne where we performed very well. But we are hungry for more.”
The side also features midfielders and sisters Elena (29) and Tamara Trösch (26); between them, they have over 20 international tournaments between them. Not only that, they both work in a rather male-dominated industry, in building services engineering alongside hockey.
Wales are captained by their most experienced player, Joanne Westwood, who has 131 caps for Wales, attending three Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014, Gold Coast 2018 and Birmingham 2022 as well as five senior European Championships
She was also their assistant coach for the Junior World Cup in South Africa in April 2022 and says of the event: “Myself and the team are very excited to play this new type of hockey. It will be short, sharp, fast and lots of goals. New fresh face to the game so we are ready and raring to go.”
Ava Dempsey and Ffion Horrell (GK) represented Wales at the Junior World Cup in April 2022. Amy Hughes (GK), Ava Dempsey, Elen Nicholls, Ffion Horrell (GK) and Lily Roberts were with the country at the Euro Hockey Junior (U21) Championship in 2022 in Belgium.
Known as Dreigiau – the Welsh word for dragon – they are coached by former international Walid Abdo who has been extremely successful at club level with Cardiff & Met, winning four trophies.
“I am excited and privileged to be coaching this group of players in this exciting new format,” he says of the event. “Looking forward to surprising some teams in Poland, with our exciting brand of play. The group are a mix of experience and youth. They have gelled very well in our training camps.”
Georgia were a late entry and are eager to show themselves for the first time on international level with a senior team. In the past, their youth teams have participated in 5s and they been preparing from the moment that we heard we where allowed to participate on their newly opened pitch in Kutaisi.
Georgia
The most experienced player in Tamar Supatashvili, who recently was the first Georgian player to participate in an European outdoor club event. She had the honour to play for TSOP Kolos Borispol from Ukraine in the European Challenge II event in Vienna where the team finished in third place!
Hosts Poland have seven of the side that played in last year’s promo event in Lausanne in their wider panel with Monika Polewczak, Sandra Tatarczuk and Amelia Katerla chief among them.
Indeed, Katerla has over 175 caps across outdoor, indoor and 5s and almost 40 goals, making her a key player. Likewise, Polewczak has over a century to her name and their team mantra is “we are warriors and we will play as warriors”.
Poland
The Turkish side can draw on a side with a healthy amount of indoor experience following their debut in the top tier of European hockey last December in Hamburg. Perihan Çinar captained that side while Fatma Songül Gültekin is a high scorer in both the indoor and outdoor formats – 38 goals in 56 internationals cumulatively – to mark her out as one to watch.
Sinem Yalçin in a key defender while Zeliha Kendir and Ilayda Taskiran are two rising stars.
In Pool B, Ukraine will look to the likes of Oksana Ponomarenko, Kateryna Shokalenko and Olha Honcharenko who are key figures internationally and with MSC “Sumchanka”.
Their panel has also picked up experience further afield with goalkeeper Alina Fadieieva starring for HF Lorenzoni in Italy and Yevheiya Kernoz with Mannheim in Germany.
Ukraine
They will look to summon inspiration from previous European successes like their gold in 2010 indoors, world indoor bronze in 2011 and last December’s indoor bronze in Hamburg for what is their first ever 5s tournament.
As with each Ukraine team, their outlook since last year is permeated by the war which has made it difficult to train collectively, sessions often interrupted by sirens and a temporary lack of electricity and water.
“Because of the war, we must play in different parts of the world. But thanks to this, we became stronger and united. We fight for our victory in war and on the playing field,” said Kernoz.
Three more legionary players joined the team in Poland, including goalkeeper Kateryna Pokidko, who played “5s” before in the Netherlands.
“Now, our purpose is EuroHockey5s in Poland. It will be a fist Eurohockey5s tournament for our team. We are ready to fight and win!” Kernoz adds.
Another side making their 5s debut, Slovakia manager Richard Garaj says the side is approaching the competition with measured excitement.
“We are thrilled to play this new style of hockey. We are coming to the tournament as a young team and our main goal is to gain new experience from playing against highly ranked countries like the Netherlands.
“Although we have a young team, there are some talented players who play in the first Czech league for the club Hradec Králové. We are also relying on our goalkeeper Daniela Šutovská, who has won several awards for her important task in the goal.”
The side have a new head coach in Adrián Augustinič who is an active player himself. He has played in some of the best club leagues in Belgium and Austria and is passing on his experience to the side.
“We are training according to a plan and we cannot wait to see our girls fighting for their country.”
Slovakia
Sweden is a small hockey country primarily focused on indoor but, in recent years, decided to join Hockey5s. They have a team with various levels of experience; some of us have played in the Euro Championships before, while others are completely new to this type of tournament with an age range between 16 and 48 years old.
They have had numerous training camps throughout the spring and finished by playing against the Netherlands in their first international Hockey5s game.
The side come from diverse backgrounds and you can often hear at least four different languages being used; they have girls who play in the English, German, Dutch, and, of course, Swedish competitions.
“We are eagerly looking forward to the tournament and the opportunity to test ourselves against the top countries in Europe. We are confident that we have the right team and staff for the task. We hope that our hard work during preparation will be rewarded,” said Felix Hörnschmeyer, head coach.
Sweden
Based on the outdoor rankings for 11-a-side, the Netherlands have the highest rating by some distance as first in the world (the next highest is Wales in 24th) and they bring a side with plenty of knowledge.
Noor de Baat is a Junior World Cup, Euro Hockey League and Indoor World Cup gold medalist; Carlijn Tukkers and Danique van der Veerdonk were both part of that junior gold in South Africa while the rest of the side is brimming with talent.
Goalkeeper Kiki Gunneman had an excellent club season with Pinoké and is also an indoor star but the panel will miss Romée Joosten through a foot injury.
Austria will look to build on the buzz of recent time, particularly January’s EuroHockey Under-21 glory and silver at the World Cup in February.
They have a healthy smattering of crossover from those sides with captain Luisa Mayer and Daria Buchta from the latter along with teenage goalkeeper Corina Stedronsky, Carla Kemper, Leonie Koderhold, Katharina Bauer and Isabella Klausbruckner all included from the former in their wider panel.
