SINGAPORE - Former national floorballer Jill Quek notched another significant milestone in her illustrious career as she became the first Asian to be inducted into the International Floorball Federation's (IFF) Hall of Fame on Sunday (Dec 5).
She was among the first batch of 10 Hall of Fame inductees who were honoured at the Women's World Floorball Championship final on Monday, which Sweden won for the eighth consecutive time after beating Finland 4-3.
She said: "I'm honoured and humbled to receive this prestigious award. I would like to thank my family, friends, coaches, teammates and everyone who made this journey possible. Without you guys, it wouldn't be the same."
In 2000, she joined Swedish club Orebo in the country's top league to become the first Singaporean to play in the Scandinavian country.
A year later, she and her younger sister, Martha, joined second-tier side Hasselby.
The 43-year-old is also Singapore's most capped female player, making 64 international appearances for the Republic and competing in seven World Floorball Championships before retiring in 2017.
The other inductees were Sweden's Karolina Widar, Martin Olofsson, Jan-Erik Vaara, Niklas Jihde, Hermine Dahlerus and Asa Karlsson, and Switzerland's Laura Tomatis, Mirca Anderegg and Simone Berner.
IFF president Tomas Eriksson said: "Since the IFF celebrated its 35th birthday in April this year it became apparent that there already are impressive and noteworthy international careers in floorball, so it felt appropriate to launch this concept and project to honour these achievements."
More players will be inducted during the ongoing Men's World Floorball Championship in Helsinki this week.
In Singapore's final Group D match on Monday, they lost 13-2 to group leaders Estonia.
The first period ended 5-0 to Estonia, who sit six places above world No. 16 Singapore in the world rankings.
In the second period, Singapore grabbed a goal through forward Thaddeus Tan and limited the free-scoring Estonians, who had earlier recorded 13-6 and 21-4 victories over the Philippines and Canada respectively, to two goals.
But the Estonians proved too strong as they put six past Singapore in the third period, with Tan getting his second of the match in the 47th minute.
Singapore will play the first of two placement matches on Tuesday, which will determine whether they make the 13th- or 15th-place play-offs Wednesday.
