UWH
Underwater Hockey: Shanghai Launches International Tournament
( crédit Shanghai International Underwater Hockey Invitational Tournament )
Last weekend, an international Underwater Hockey tournament took place at the Jing’an Sports Center in Shanghai, organized by Shanghai Azures and Yannick Morin. This first edition brought together 10 teams, seven men’s and three women’s, in a format that included a Round Robin stage and knockout rounds.
In the men’s category, the French U24 team (unofficial teams) won the championship, while the Hong Kong team was crowned champion in the women’s category.
Men’s Podium:
🥇 Champion: France U24 Team
🥈 Runner-up: Beijing Men’s Team (UWH)
🥉 Third Place: Shanghai Azures Men’s Team
Women’s Podium:
🥇 Champion: Hong Kong Pink Dolphins
🥈 Runner-up: Beijing Women’s Team (UWH)
🥉 Third Place: Shanghai Azures Women’s Team
( crédit Shanghai International Underwater Hockey Invitational Tournament )
« Great infrastructure, good organization—this is one of the best-hosted tournaments we’ve attended; they even provided buses for us, » said Adrien Meriguet, a player on the France U24 team.
For a first edition, the host club (Azures) delivered a solid performance, particularly in organization, with excellent management of match schedules. Games were 2 x 12 minutes for the Round Robins on Saturday, October 25th, and 2 x 15 minutes for the playoffs on Sunday, October 26th.
While the atmosphere on site was great, including a special gala match, the level of play was deemed less satisfying.
« There were too few teams for our liking, and the overall level was too low. For a tournament like this, we would have liked more teams… We did play one team in the final that was quite tough… but the others were still clearly below that standard, » commented Romain Rahoul, another player from the France U24 team.
What we should remember from this first edition is that the tournament has the potential to become an interesting exhibition, possibly with a cash prize, as Asia aims to develop its hockey. Unfortunately, for an international competition, there are still too few teams and the skill level is too low for current international standards.
Shanghai will have a second chance to prove itself next year, with the ambition of making the tournament bigger.