Ice gold win in Chile for Falklands skaters

FALKLANDS Hockey Association youth team Wolverines were the ecstatic victors at the Punta Arenas, Chile, Copa Invernada Ice Hockey Tournament on Sunday night.
To add to the excitement, a second Falklands youth team, Bombers, took bronze, and the Islands’ senior team, the Falklands Penguins also achieved bronze.

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Hockey kids hit the ground running

TWENTY-eight youth hockey players with a senior team, coaches and parents were on the ice within hours of arriving in Punta Arenas, Chile last Saturday.

The inline skaters only had that evening and three more days to convert to ice skates from roller boots before the Copa Invernada ice hockey tournament began.

After some tutelage from manager and organiser Grant Budd and members of the senior team (Penguins) they were ready for their first game, Knights versus Kotaix on Wednesday morning.

An exciting match, which was also watched online by Falklands supporters around the globe, ended 5-4 to Kotaix, but was proof that lack of an ice rink in the Falklands wasn’t going to hold the Islanders’ back. All four goals were scored by Matt Francis and the team was completed by Goalie Karla Aguilera, Isadora Acevedo, Theo Duncan, and Gabriella and James Hartley (man of the match).

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Hockey youths to Chile

TWENTY eight members of the Falkland Islands Hockey Association Youth league are in  Punta Arenas, Chile  for their very first overseas competition, the Copa Invernada ice hockey tournament.

The brave youngsters, who make up teams Bombers, Wolverines, Knights and Dragons, all skilled roller hockey players, are adapting to ice skates for the matches and on Monday coach Grant Budd said they were all skating superbly.

Next week an all girls team will play a girls team from Punta Arenas and two Falklands National Team games will be played against a mixed team from the three different associations/clubs in Punta Arenas.

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Horses triumph in Falklands inaugural Man v Horse race

IT may come as a surprise to some that over a long enough distance, human beings can outrun any creature on earth, including horses. What we lack in breakaway speed, we more than make up for in endurance, capable of covering vast distances after other animals become winded and unable to continue. 

In the Falkland Islands inaugural Man v Horse race on Sunday, which was roughly based on that held every year in Wales, four horses triumphed, however the first (Skye ridden by Lisa Watson) was only eight minutes ahead of the first runner Dominic Smith (First Field Squadron) and six people in total managed to outrun three of the horses entered in the race. Second and third places overall went to Tennessee ridden by Sarah Cooper and Dixie ridden by Sharon Jaffray.

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