ENTHUSIASTIC GB TEAM AFTER WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!

It was an enthusiastic team from Great Britain that left the FIB World Championship Women in Sweden. The tournament is the first in which the female GB team and Netherlands team participated and it was an immediate success for both teams. Great Britain reached the final of Group B and met the Netherlands. The final was exciting and very tight and was first decided with Golden Goal in favor of the Dutch team. Thus. We really hope both teams will show up in World Championships next time. 

Before returning home, Claire Ledbury was interviewed live by Dotty McLeod on Radio Cambridgeshire.

Listen to the interview here!

 

SWEDEN AND NETHERLANDS WINNERS!

SWEDEN WORLD CHAMPION!

Sweden defended the championship title for women when the final of the 2022 World Championship was decided on Sunday, March 27. Sweden defeated Norway, which played in the championship final for the first time. In the end, the victory was quite big for the host nation, 12-0 after 6-0 at half time.

Several teams have developed a lot in recent years. Norway and the United States impressed most. The Netherlands and Great Britain also made an exciting championship debut in the Group B. This development means that the upcoming world championships will be very interesting. Of course, Russia’s absence this year meant that it did not become a traditional final in this year’s tournament.

The Finnish team won the bronze medals after a convincing victory against the USA with 5-2 (2-1) in the match for third prize.

The goals in the final:
1-0 (17) Matilda Svenler (assist Emelie Åkerlund), 2-0 (22) Tilda Ström (ass Moa Friman), 3-0 (26) Tilda Ström (ass Sanna Gustafsson), 4-0 (27) Moa Friman (ass Ida Friman), 5-0 (38) Tilda Ström (ass Lisa Östman), 6-0 (43) Tilda Ström (ass Sanna Gustafsson), 7-0 (59) Tilda Ström, 8-0 (71) Mathilda Eklund (ass Ida Friman), 9-0 (77) Emelie Åkerlund (ass Matilda Svenler), 10-0 (85) Ida Friman (ass Emelie Åkerlund), 11-0 (90) Emma Ahlander (ass Emelie Åkerlund) and 12-0 (92) Emelie Åkerlund

THE NETHERLANDS WON GROUP B

In Group B of the World Championships, it was the Netherlands who won the tournament after a very well-conducted tournament. It was a brilliant debut as it was the first time the Netherlands participated in the World Championshipös. The team won 4 games out of 5. A very good performance and a great victory. In the final, the Netherlands won against the newcomer Great Britain by deciding in extra time Golden Goal by scoring the only goal of the match. Happy goal scorer was Meinke Gommans.

FINLAND WON BRONZE MEDAL IN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!

It was Finland who won the bronze when the match for the third prize was played in the women’s World Championship in Sweden on Sunday March 27. USA has done a very good tournament and the team has grown a lot in recent years. In the bronze match, however, the Finnish girls were too strong and won the match for third prize 5-2 after 2-1 at half time.

The goals in the bronze match:
1-0 Linda Lohiniva, 1-1 Amy Stech, 2-1 Susanna Simola, 3-1 Susanna Simola, 3-2 Amy Stech, 4-2 Linda Lohiniva and 5-2 Susanna Simola.

Read more about the entire the World Championship tournament here!

World Championship women in Åby!

Now the venue for the women’s World Championships in Sweden is decided. The venue will be Åby, which is a small community north of Växjö in Sweden but with its own indoor arena. The tournament was actually planned to play in January in Stockholm but for various reasons it was moved and will now be played March 23-27 in small Åby.

Eriksson Ice Arena is a newly built bandy arena in Åby, the small community located north of Växjö in southern Sweden about 400 kilometers south of Stockholm. The arena was completed in 2019 and Åby/Tjureda, which is a team in the Bandyallsvenskan that is the Swedish second division, normally plays there.
Sweden is the reigning world champion but there are several other teams that certainly want to change that.

WCS FOR WOMEN MOVES TO MARCH!

The Women’s World Championship was scheduled to take place January 10-16 in Stockholm and the first world championship for women to be played indoors in the newly built Gubbängen Bandy Arena. The Swedish Bandy Federation has now informed the Federation of International Bandy that they are unable to carry out the event.

Pär Gustafsson is General Secretary of the Swedish Bandy Federation and is very disappointed that the tournament can not be carried out as planned.

-It is postponed because we are without an organizer. The Stockholm District has decided that they will not host the Women’s World Championship in January. We have not been allowed to be part of the process until this decision, but received a ready-made decision for us, says Pär Gustafsson to the Swedish bandy site Bandypuls.

The covid situation is also said to have been recorded, even though Pär Gustafsson believes that it has been entirely possible to carry out the tournament.

When FIB got to take part in the decision from the Swedish Bandy Federation, FIB has agreed to move the women’s world championships to later this season. The tournament will now be played the last week of March with the World Championship final on March 27. The plan is that the tournament will still be held in Sweden, but the venue will be decided later, but not in Stockholm.

Great Britain aims at Stockholm!

It is well known that bandy as a sport was invented in the British Isles before country after country became aware of it. Today, FIB member national federations are found almost all around the world.

But in the GB, bandy has been in decline for a very long time since they invented the sport, at least if we talk about womens bandy. The British men’s team has participated in the World Championships as late as 2019 when the B group nations met in Sweden. Then the team went all the way to the final. There, however, Estonia became too difficult and the Estonians won 9-3.

In 2020 tournament in Irkutsk they did not get the chance to participate due to Visa problems.

But now there are far-reaching plans for the Great Britain to establish itself in the big picture on the women’s side as well. Talks are currently ongoing with potential sponsors for this historic contest where the British Isles will take this originally British sport to compete against those forward thinking countries who have continued the bandy playing tradition since it was first taken out to them by the Bury Fen Bandy Club from the fens of Cambridgeshire in the 19th century!

The leading lady in British bandy Rev Lyn Gibb de Swarte is now working intensively to attract sponsors to support the British women team’s commitment to the World Championships in Stockholm in January 2022.

FIB really wish Lyn and her staff great luck in order for the dream to become a reality!

If you want to know more about it or maybe even want to be a sponsor for the team, the email address is this: gbbandyfederation@btinternet.com