Olympic Winter Games: February 12 to 28, 2010

As you may or may not know, the olympics (winter or summer) take place once every 4 years, and this recent olympics was one for the books, although sadly South African TV coverage was nothing special.

If you were lucky enough to view the highlights between 1 and 2 hours a day, you would have a decent idea of what was going on between the hockey, figure skating, speed skating, curling and many more. Obviously our main concern and focus was on the men's and women's ice hockey.

The lucky ones that have the German bouquet on DSTV will still be smiling as they had the luxury of sitting back and watching the games live. The Men's final was between USA and Canada. With just under 20 seconds to go the USA came back from a 2:1 score to tie the game. This sent the game into overtime which was an additional 20 minutes played with 4 on the ice instead of 5 and with the golden goal rule (first team to score, wins!).

5 Minutes into the 4th period, NHL SuperStar (although was hardly seen in the entire game) Sydney Crosby gets a tight angle shot on the American goaltender and put the puck away. Canada win!

TEAM SA - Training camp no.3

Two camps have gone by and major growth has been seen both on and off the ice. This team is equally spread between Cape Town and Jhb with some Natal input.

The third training camps is taking place at the end of this month again at Grand West as head coach Ronni Wood will put on the finishing touches before leaving for Armenia on 9 April 2010. Sadly two strong players have pulled out due to personal reasons and line jugglying will need to take place to keep the team in alignment.

Additional players should be entering the squad but at this moment in time, nothing is for certain. TEAM SA is still looking to bring home the GOLD medal which means they will need to beat Korea in the finals. They are very confident and training is going well as the next training camp will see them for the last time during an allstar game before they leave.

The previous allstar game featured TEAM SA vs a WP invitational allstar team mainly showcasing international players from Russia, Switzerland, Namibia, America and Canada. TEAM SA held their heads high and kept their composure for most of the game to win it 9 - 4. The next all star game will take place on Monday 29 March @ 7pm - Grand West.

From the ice - local ice hockey blog

Cape Town ice hockey player, Marc Giot, has started a website/blog called fromtheice and can be found here www.fromtheice.co.za.

The focus of the site is to create awareness of ice hockey in South Africa. The site is updated almost daily with his views, interesting articles, youtube videos and clips from hockey where Marc is either behind the camera or on the ice. This site has been taken to very well and is definitely creating some kind of boost to the sport in the country.

Some of the latest uploads are from the Fantastic4 where SuperStars (Russia's Fedorov, Ovechkin and more) are interviewed including highlights from the last allstar game between TEAM SA and WP AllStars.

fromtheice also focuses on hockey tips, techniques, drills and do'&donts... This gives people who have no idea about ice hockey, an inside view into the sport as if they were a player themselves.

Check it out at www.fromtheice.co.za

IIHF Coaching Course - Grand West

This past week (1-7 March) Darryl Easson, IIHF Sports Development Manager, visited Cape Town for a coaches coaching course and level 1 coaching course.

The course was very well attended with coaches from Natal, Jhb and Cape Town. The first course was held during the week which was specifically for SA coaches Ronni Wood, Kieren Edge and Eddie Compton. The 2nd was a level 1 coaching course which took place over the majority of the weekend.

Friday and Saturday was mainly in the classroom with Sunday morning having hands-on training with Darryl on the ice, coaching 60+ kids. The main focus of this session was complete ice coverage, ensuring all kids were active throughout the entire session, correct basic hockey techniques and team work.

The course was a great success and alot was learnt during the 3 days. We would like to thank Mr Darryl Easson from IIHF for his time, effort and great stories.

African Nations Cup - 5 Teams for 2010

With the postponing of the African Nations Cup last year which was scheduled between 3 countries, South Africa, Algeria and Morocco. The organisers are busy working with the other countries and teams to set up and confirm dates for the event to take place.

In addition, there has been interest from numerous other countries to take part in this tournament. For more information about the African Nations Cup please go to their website www.africa-nations-cup.co.za

Team SA - Battle it out in Armenia, IIHF World Championships, 2010

The IIHF Senior World Championships are being held in Armenia later this year in April. The SA team that is made up of athletes from Durban, Gauteng and Cape Town have been under vigorous training since the beginning of the year and with 3 training camps scheduled (1 already taken palce) this should see TEAM SA in great running for a GOLD medal in Armenia.

To view the team announcement made by SAIHA at the beginning of the year please view the NEWS HEALINES below.

The next training camps are scheduled for the end of February & March as the team depart on 9 April. They will be playing in a warm up game against Georgia (2011 IIHF qualifier for Georgia). The tournament sees TEAM SA take on Armenia and Mongolia and then tackle Korea (who last beat RSA 6 - 0 in 2008). After studying the video of their previous encounter, head coach Ronnie Wood is confident that they will have what it takes to beat the Korean team.

SA U18 - Wins the bronze medal !!!

Not gold, not silver but a very well deserved BRONZE. The final game between SA and Israel determined the outcome, and as you can read below in the game report, it went right down to the wire!

3 periods, 1 over time period and penalty shootouts. With the man of the hour being Mr Uthman Samaai scoring 2 goals, 1 assist and scoring the final goal in the penalty shootout. Well done to SA u18.

More info to come on the teams arrival.