Rink-credible feat!

Bahrain’s finest ice hockey players have pulled off a rink-credible feat by winning a major international tournament for the first time, defeating teams with much deeper roots and greater facilities in the sport, writes Kristian Harrison.

Bahrain Ice Hockey Club travelled to Dubai to take part in the Dubai Mighty Camels Tournament, a yearly event held at Al Nasr Leisureland in the emirate. Teams from Oman, Germany, Russia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and others participated alongside Bahrain.

After a thrilling group stage and a tense semi-final against Switzerland, Bahrain trounced Oman 8-1 in the final to take the crown.

It was the second time the team had entered this tournament, and have also participated in other events across the GCC, including Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Most notably, they represented Bahrain at the Asian Winter Games in 2011.

Long-term supporter Sian Thorne, who has followed and helped out with the team for nine years, spoke proudly about the team’s exploits, and believes they can use the success to go on to greater things.

She said: “I am personally very proud of the team and I believe Bahrain should be too. The players continue to work very hard, they train religiously for hours and continue to push their abilities to become stronger players.

“They continue to work on themselves without any professional coaching and as a team progress together. Gradually, ice hockey in Bahrain is becoming recognised and with the start-up of our women’s and junior team we hope to encourage new players to join the sport and continue to represent Bahrain.

“Winning this tournament proves that Bahrain has what it takes to compete internationally and if they carry on training hard there’s no reason why they can’t compete at an even higher level.”

The team trains every Sunday and Tuesday between 8pm and 10pm, at the FunLand Centre on the Corniche.

Bahraini captain Salman Al Thawadi took up ice hockey in 1999 joining a group of Canadian expats who used to play every weekend. After watching the US National Hockey League ice action on TV, he decided to take up the sport shortly afterwards and joined the fun.

Over the years, he introduced his cousins and close friends to the sport, who in turn recruited others and the sport slowly grew amongst the local population as well as the expat community. Bahrain now has a number of local teams who schedule matches against each other, plus national men’s and women’s teams, with a junior team in its infancy.

He said: “This is the first time we’ve won a tournament and I’m so proud. I’ve been here from the beginning and it was a slow process at first, but now ice hockey is really catching on in Bahrain and almost every training session we have someone new coming to the arena and enquiring about joining or wanting to meet us.

“It’s a difficult sport to learn but so rewarding and definitely the most thrilling and intense to play in, in my opinion.

“It’s open to anybody who wants to come down, so come and give it a try!”

The Bahrain Ice Hockey Club is open to all ages and all levels of skaters.

For more details,visit

@bhicehockey on Instagram.