BEIJING, April 13 (Xinhua) -- In order to perform better in the 2022 Winter Olympics, the Chinese women ice hockey players still have a tough way ahead to tune up their skills and to get stronger legs.
"The Chinese players have great potentials," said China coach Jakob Koelliker. "But their legs need to be strengthened. We will work hard to ensure a better performance in the 2022 Winter Olympics."
At the IIHF Ice Hockey Women's World Championship Division I Group B which concluded here on Friday, China suffered a three-game losing streak after two straight wins to rank fourth and fail to obtain the promotion.
China, which ranked 20th in the world, had a perfect start with the 3-0 and 5-2 victories over Latvia and South Korea, especially the win over South Korea, which was a great boost to their confidence.
Then came three defeats in a row, namely a 4-0 loss to the Netherland, a 4-3 thriller to Poland and a 2-1 defeat to Kazakhstan.
In the game against Poland, China dominated the beginning minutes but quickly lost the tempo to lag behind 4-1 before netting two more goals to concede the defeat.
"We've tried our best, we were still short of experience as we tended to be anxious in the stalemate," Chinese player He Xin said.
"Our women players are still learning advanced concepts from our rivals and we will train harder in order to make improvement in the future," said the officials from the Chinese Ice Hockey Association.
