There was barely a dry eye in the house when Ukraine won the bronze medal at the 2022 women’s EuroHockey Indoor Championship in Hamburg, something they are working to emulate this time weekend.
Four of that side are back from that feat in Berlin with Kateryna Shokalenko taking over the captaincy from Yevheniya Moroz. Top goalkeeper Alina Fadieieva will guard the goal once more youngster Anastasiia Shyshyna and Yevheniya Kernoz providing a link between the two campaigns.
It means eight players coming in with livewire forward Karyna Leonova one to watch out for while Kateryna Popova moves up from the Under-21 side who played in Lucerne in the junior Euros a year ago.
For the wider Ukraine squad, it has been an exceptionally busy period despite the limitations of their schedule, playing in the Olympic qualifiers in January in Valencia and then the Hockey 5s World Cup in Oman.
They are thankful for the recent hosting by German clubs (Mannheim Hockey Club, DTV Hannover, TTK Sachsenwald) and the German federation for supporting them in these hard times for their country. It gave them the opportunity to train at their facilities and play friendly games.
“This time, there are quite a few changes to their indoor team compared to the last year, due to the ongoing war and various circumstances. It’s a mix of young talent coming up and some experienced indoor players,” says coach Svitlana Makaieva of their prospects.
“Most of the girls are part of outdoor, indoor and Hockey 5’s squads. They were very intense months, psychologically and physically for the players and staff.
“We could have a limited preparation for this Indoor EuroHockey Indoor Championship.
Our indoor trainings were mostly in Ukraine, often interrupted by air alerts and the necessity of taking the shelter. “We love Indoor and we hope to show some spectacular hockey making happy our supporters and Ukrainians all over the world.”
** 28 of the games will be streamed live from Berlin on www.eurohockeytv.org
** To find out more about the stats, fixtures and teams, click here: https://tms.fih.ch/competitions/1551
