WOMEN-IN-HOCKEY Digest 232

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) European Championsip in Yaroslavl (Russia)
	by email@hidden

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 07 May 1996 12:58:41 CET
From: email@hidden
To: email@hidden
Subject: European Championsip in Yaroslavl (Russia)
Message-ID: 

Hi all,
My name is Prisca Mosimann. I'm 21 years old and come from Switzerland.
I play ice hockey for the "SC Lyss Damen", a team that competes in the 
highest Swiss division and recently won the Swiss Championship Title for the 
third time.
This past season five players from Lyss  were selected for the Swiss 
National Team: Ramona Fuhrer (17), Mireille Noethiger (23), Doris Wyss (23),
                         Gilliane Jeannottat (23) and me.
                         (Actually there were  6 players from Lyss selected for the 
                         European Championship! Tiia Reima who played for the last two
                         years for Lyss made the Finnish National Team. Along with 
                         her team she won the bronze medal.)
I would like to tell you a little bit about what the Swiss Team experienced  at the European 
Championship about two weeks ago in Russia.


EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP  POOL A 1996 IN YAROSLAVL (RUSSIA)

The European Championship started on March 23th and was held in Yaroslavl a
town four hours (by car) away from Moskow. The Swiss Team went two days early
and tried to settle as well as possible. The journey to Yaroslavl took us almost 
a whole day. We flew from Zuerich to Frankfurt (Germany) and then further to 
Moskow. 
The passport control was very tiring. They checked all our passports and visas 
very carefully. We waited for at least 1.5 hour until the last person of our 
team could pass.
An old bus was already waiting for us at the airport. A 4.5 hours long bus ride
was awaiting us. It was already dark outside so we couldn't see a lot of the 
capital city (Moskow). Before some of the players fell asleep we celebrated our
assistent coach's birthday and sang some songs.

When we arrived in Yaroslavl we immediately moved into our rooms and went to bed.
We lived in a huge hotel. All the teams, except the Russians, lived in the same
building. Each team inhabited another floor so that we didn't get in each other's
way. :-) The only place we met from time to time was the big dinning room.

The second day in Yaroslavl we had our first practice. We got a nice dressing room 
and took a look at the rink first. The rink was quite big. There was enough space for
about  5000 spectators.

The first  ice session didn't end up well for us. The captain of our team had a collision
with the boards and broke the bone in her calf. That was hard for her and of course also for
us. We knew that we lost our best player ( During the preparation games she shot 45%  of our
goals). Well, she had to fly back immediately and the tournament started without her.

The opening ceremony was the nicest I've ever experienced. Five players of each team were 
standing on the ice while children  were skating around with flowers and presents. Several 
people gave a short speech before about 5000 people, welcoming the teams. It was great!

The tournament did not go well for Switzerland. We only won  against Germany. The games 
against Russia and Norway were very close, we missed luck!
Our results:   GER - SUI   2:3
	       SUI - RUS   3:4
               SWE - SUI   6:3
               SUI - FIN   0:8
               SUI - NOR   2:3

Of course we'd have liked to be placed better ( we come in 5th) but, at least  we were able 
to qualify for the World Championship 1997 in Kitchener (Canada).

I'm glad that I could go to Russia. It was good for me to get an impression of how people 
live there. Well, we didn't see much of the country but we spent a few days in one of Russia's 
biggest cities. We saw many nice churches but also noticed old, decayed buildings. The people 
seemed to me very serious. The shops were special too. I didn't see any shop windows, so it 
was hard to tell where the shops were.

Sweden won the EC, I guess that was a big surprise for everybody. I will allow them the titel 
but I personally think that Finland was the strongest team.



Greetings from Switzerland!

Prisca  

















	



------------------------------

End of WOMEN-IN-HOCKEY Digest 232
*********************************