Today our tournament received more Television coverage that it ever has here in Canada. We would like to thank the CBC, CBC Here and Now and all the Media that has seen the diversity and depth of our ISBHF Family. We would like to thank the programs who went on the CBC to tell them about there leagues they have back at home in Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Israel and Switzerland to mention a few. These CBC coast to coast pieces are great exposure for the game. And of our 10th Men's and 4th Women's world meeting of the ISBHF family.
Speaking of the game. What about the results at the rink. What is it with Portugal versus the Czech Republic. The World champs handle everyone quite well and with excellence, but even in 2011 they lost to Portugal in the preliminaries before winning Gold. Regardless this was a great game followed by a rousing tilt between Greece and Canada in front of a throng of 1000+ thrilled fans. The Greeks gave the Canadians all they can handle. And this result and many others shows how this year's event has the best depth of teams we have ever seen. All the A teams are stocked with the soldiers they need to win Gold. And this year's event has about 10-15 more great games (bell ringers!!) that will leave a mark on the ball hockey aficionado.
Let us not forget the ultra competitive B Pool who has all the teams playing like each game is its last. New nations like Armenia and Israel are looking for their first ever win, but not one team will tell you they are easy to play against. The best thing to say is that all 7 teams still have days to decide who get to play in the Gold and Bronze game on Sunday morning. We have to many great games ahead to mention at this level.
Finally to make things even more enticing for those ball hockey junkies. We start the 8 team women's pool today. It will be fun to see how those teams progress through the round robin. As the ball drops this morning at Glacier.
We would like to mention that our referees from our 8 nations have done a great job to date of making the game safer and bringing a intensity to each game matching our players. We would like to acknowledge the work of those 16 refs a long with our 3 RIC's and wish them a great finish.
Our web broadcast announcers have been amazing and I am told that we have had thousands of hits for our games from many nations who are tuning in to see their relations play. This we owe to Bell Aliant who has brought a true passion and excitement to each call.
These numbers will increase as the importance of these games intensify. And in closing I would just like to say a thank you to all the players. The effort and drive they show when they are representing the nation they come from, their families back in Asia, Caribbean, Europe and North America cannot be replicated. It is where teams who are less talented rise up to beat teams who are. These players have brought it these first few days shift in shift out. And as such the possible tournament winners at all levels are so many more than years before as the preparation and improvement is incredible. And we will have to let the next 5 days sort it out. Tune in and cheer on your nations players to see all games.
Off to our opening ceremonies. It will be a awesome sight of uniform colour and 700 players and 25 National teams all in one arena. You can watch those too!!
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