People of Ladakh accorded a grand welcome to the women ice hockey team who represented India in Ice Hockey Challenge Cup of Asia on March 19 at KBR airport Leh. The team won two matches out of six matches which were played in Bangkok from March 7 to15.  

 

A total of seven countries including Malaysia, Thailand, UAE, Philippine, New Zealand, Singapore, and India participated.

People greeted them with the traditional scarf and congratulated them.

Tsewang Chuskit from Tangtse was honored with the most valuable player of the tournament while Disket Chonzom Angmo was awarded as the best player of the India team.

 

Dr. Sonam Dawa, CEC said that it is a very proud moment as the girls from Ladakh has proved the world by winning two matches at international level and bagged the fourth position. 

He assured full support in future to groom the players for next tournament and promised to complete the Ice hockey rink on time. 

 

He further informed that the issue has been taken up by the Central Government to support such sports person in future.

  

Rinchen Dolma, Captain India team said, “We are very happy that we performed better than the last year and bagged the fourth position by winning two matches in the tournament.

Last year, we were not able to perform well because we represented at international level for the very first time.  Our players don’t have the experience to play on an artificial rink, so there is a need to improve the facilities to strengthen this sport in India as well as in Ladakh.”

She hopes that with the completion of Ice Hockey Rink in Leh itself, the players can perform its best at the international level as the practice session will be longer. She informed that J&K Sports Council promised to sanction ₹7 Lakh for financial assistance.

The team thanked Ice Hockey Association of India for providing them such platform.

Noor Jahan, last year best goaltender, said, “We are very happy that we could compete very well with rest of the country and won two matches. We only have two months to practice and the other teams practiced throughout the year still, we gave a tough competition. But due to lack of fund, we have faced a lot of problems because we have to go for fundraising to represent India.”

Women’s Wing, President, Ladakh Buddhist Association, Anjuman Moin-Ul-Islam, Women Alliance Leh, Ladakh Drayang members and SECMOL also felicitated them.