Floorball: Singapore to compete at women's world championships after qualification events axed

SINGAPORE - Singapore has qualified for this year's Women's World Floorball Championships (WFC) based on their world ranking after the International Floorball Federation (IFF) announced on Wednesday (April 14) that the qualification events have been cancelled.

The Republic, ranked 14th in the world, will be joined by 15 other countries, including host nation Sweden, in Uppsala for the Nov 27-Dec 5 tournament.

The five regional events were scheduled for May and June, but the IFF said in a statement on its website that "the Covid-19 pandemic continues to make the situation for preparation and travel very difficult in most countries".

Singapore were due to compete in the qualifier for Asia and Oceania in Japan from June 29 to July 3. The other events were to be held in Canada, Latvia, Italy and Slovakia.

National player Jowie Tan was relieved when she first heard the news as that meant they "don't have to risk our exposure by travelling overseas".

"But then I felt it was a bit sad as we have been looking forward to a major competition and now it has been cancelled," added Tan, 28, whose last tournament with the national team was the last edition of the WFC in December 2019.

IFF president Tomas Eriksson said the governing body's central board members "stressed that it is first and foremost our duty to take care of the safety and well-being of all players and officials, hence with all uncertainty with Covid-19, it leaves us with the only option to cancel the (qualification events), however sad it is".

Of the 25 teams registered to participate in the qualification tournaments, 11 said they could not compete and five more said their participation was "highly doubtful", said the IFF.

The main reasons cited were travel restrictions, including testing and quarantine rules, and the lack of preparation because of local regulations.

At the 2019 World Championships in Neuchatel, Switzerland, the Singapore women's team achieved their best-ever finish of 12th out of 16 teams since the tournament switched to a one-division format in 2011.

That feat came shortly after they retained their gold medal at the 2019 SEA Games, following a 3-2 win over Thailand in the final.

Tan is eager to build on their performance but admitted their 10th world championship outing will be tough given that her team have not played a full six-a-side match since the pandemic.

"The thing we're lacking is full on-court time where we can play offensively and defensively on the full length of the court," said Tan, adding that the team have been working on offensive play-ups to react to as many defensive scenarios as possible.

"It is a lot of pressure to maintain and increase the standard and quality of play. We just have to trust our teammates and the coaching team and be confident of ourselves to be able to put up a good fight for the matches."

Teammate Mindy Lim hopes the current safe distancing measures allowing only a group of eight can be eased so that they can play a full game.

Singapore will host the next edition of the WFC in 2023, nearly two decades after the Republic last hosted the tournament in 2005, when they finished 11th of 17 teams in the two-division tournament.