Ice hockey champ soaring high

For the last two days,Rinchen Dolma has been collecting information from her friends and also from the internet about the present weather in Kuala Lampur. The reason: After two days she will be flying to Malaysia from New Delhi to take part in the invitational tournament organised by the Malaysia Ice Hockey Federation that starts from September 22 to 25. Rinchen,along with Stanzin Dolker,will play for the Malaysian team. “It was Dolker who had got a call for the tournament. The Federation had also asked the Winter Sports Club to send another ice hockey player and they suggested my name,” said an ecstatic Rinchen,who belongs to Spituk village in Ladakh region. After moving to Chandigarh,Rinchen,a student of Government College,Sector 42,lost touch with her skates. It was only for one month during winter that she took permission from her college to go back to Leh and train with her colleagues. “Those one month was more than sufficient. Not only we got ample training from the coaches,but also the national and state level tournaments happened in that month only. So,I was always be in action. In Chandigarh,I try to keep my myself fit and for that I run for few kilometres early in the morning,” shared the 19-year-old. It was in December 2009 when Rinchen last participated in a tournament and the team,Siachen,had emerged as winners. Apart from playing for the district and state teams,Rinchen has also participated in large number of national tournaments and three international events. It was in 2003 when she made her debut for the national team during the Ice Skating National Championship in New Delhi. She ended up bagging a silver and bronze. The same year she won a silver in 500 metre race and was also the best women athlete at the Winter Games in Gulmarg. Two years later,she was the part of the Indian team that took part in the World Junior Speed Skating Championship in Finland. “I was very nervous since it was my first international tournament. I tried to give my best for the country and the experience to see players from other countries was tremendous,” she said. It was 12 years ago that her father had bought her a pair of skates after watching girls skate in Shimla where he was taking part in a tournament. When Rinchen started skating,there were only two,three other girls who followed the same passion. However,just two years later,Winter Sports Club started included girls team in the state level tournament and that was where Rinchen tryst with skating began. “Now,lots of girls from Ladakh are into skating. Foreign teams come there and play with the local outfits and it gives a tremendous boost to us. Also,we are sent for camp outside India. I still remember my stay with an American family when we were sent for camp in Los Angeles in 2007. They are very enthusiastic about skating and their inputs and love for the sport made it an amazing experience for all of us,” shared Rinchen.