Asian Winter Games Photo Album

Kazakhstan is MUCH nicer than expected....and Almaty is MUCH cooler than expected. This was a great week with good people, good hockey and bad coffee....

The Olympic Council of Asia awarded the Player of The Game Award. I never found out who voted but they usually got it wrong.

Me - Baluan Sholak Sports Palace. Named after a famous Weightlifter.

South Korea were quite bad at Ice Hockey it turns out.

The week before I arrived I noticed -22 degrees temperatures and it did get chilly but it wasn't half as cold as I expected. Didn't need to buy long johns but was very happy to have these boots bought for me as it was icey on the streets. 

China were my favorite team, but let me down badly.

The buildings in Almaty looked a bit Eastern European and many times you might think you were in Russia or Poland or  even a bit of central Europe, but then all the people looked Oriental. This was a shocker for me and I felt a bit stupid not knowing to expect this. Most of the men looked like this guy.  



The Cable Cars. These were awesome. And free for media. The Asiada Logo of the White Tiger was everywhere, although I saw no actual White Tigers  



The Amazing Shin

China v South Korea

Bandy up in the mountains

Kazakhstan pose for team pics after Gold Medal win

And line up to get their Gold

The Real Life Borat

Don't Milk It Girls

Car Park After Gold Medal Game, the Kazaki Girls mobbed like Rock Stars

They even had a customised team bus

If you put your hand in here and make a wish it is supposed to come true. Let me tell you something. It doesn't work. 



Big screen outside the Baluan Sholak



Canadians Let Loose. The crew for the Ice Hockey was massive and mostly Canadian. I thought I'd be working with a small local crew but these guys were top notch. Luke Coley is on the left and bloody hell I can't remember the guy on the left, except he was from Nova Scotia and probably called Steve. Both excellent chaps and brillaint young TV talents. I really regret not a) learning their names and b) not getting contacts for these guys. They were great.    

Kazaki medalists...and an unknown helper. The volunteers at the AWG and in Baluan Sholak who all had these red ski suits were so so good. Helped make the event what it was. 

Lost my free hat early on so had to go with green cap. Not quite warm enough. This is me at the finish line of the Giant Slalom. We were working for the Host Broadcaster so had loads of free stuff to wear some of which I brought back, some of which I left behind as there was just so much....so happy days for my maid at the hotel. But the ski jacket was a keeper....although I doubt if I will ever wear the snood. 

AWG Women's Ice Hockey. How Did It End?

This was an excellent competition. South Korea finished with 4 losses scoring just one goal and in last place. North Korea finished fourth, with just one win, over SK. But the medalists were still duking it out on the final day of the round-robin format.
This is because of an amazingly topsey turvey game between Japan and China which Japan somehow won in OT (reported below) and Kazakhstan beating Japan in a penalty shoot out after a 2-2 draw after OT. So the Big Three had all been involved in tied games so far....and Japan, as expected beat North Korea in the morning game to put themselves top with just Kaz v China to play.

Look, if I'm losing you, this is what all this meant going into that final game....

If Kazakhstan beat China they would win Gold.
If China beat Kazakhstan, they would win Gold, but only if they won in regulation time.
If It was a 0-0, 1-1 or 2-2 draw...Japan could still win Gold...if China won in OT.
If it was a 3-3 draw or more, the winner of OT or Penalty Shots won Gold.....

So I went up the spiral stairs in the corner of the rink, edging past fans because there are no walkways in the Baluan Sholak, and got ready for the final game of the AWG.

Full House - Thursday Afternoon in Almaty



The Crosse - Chiplen - Love Line

It was a terrific game. Fitting for what had effectively become the Gold Medal game, but with the twist that Japan were watching from the stands still able to win it all.

Kazakhstan d-man Yelena Shtelmaister shot in the first goal in the 12th minute and a brilliantly finished breakaway by the speedy Zarina Tukhtiyeva, her second such goal in the competition, made it 2-0 after two periods. China were impressive though and every time the Zhang-Sun-Jin line were out they looked threatening. But the killer third goal came in the third period as Shtelmaister, powering in from the left wing, scored from close in. This we thought should settle it, but China came back so strongly you just felt there might still be a game on. China pulled their netminder on the powerplay and went 6 on 4, getting a goal back through extra forward Rui Ma and had chances to make it 3-2 before an empty netter from Lyubov Ibragimova in the last minute finally secured the win for Kazakhstan. China were my tip for Gold, their first line would beat anyone, but Kazakhstan had greater depth, a real finisher in Tukhtiyeva and great netminding from Darya Obydennova. And the 4-1 home win put everyone in a good mood.

And the result meant Kazakhstan won Gold, Japan Silver, China Bronze

Kaz celebrate

More

Kaz get their Gold Medals

Silver for Japan. Fast and skilled with the best passing game, and a Canadian Asst Coach - Andrew Allen - who is a great guy, always good for a chat and a useful source of research

Scored the only goal of the Penalty Shoot Out win over Japan which became decisive, plus two vital breakaway goals, possibly Player of the Games - Tukhtiyeva. A nightmare name for a commentator though.



Gold Winners



Tomoe Yamane with her Silver

The Kazaki netminder. A real bad-ass. Neck tattoo and all.



China. Should Do Better. Bronze




 And totally unofficial and my opinion only: The All Star Teams.

First All Star Team:
N/M: Obydennova - KAZ
D: Qi - CHINA
D: Shtelmaister - KAZ
F: Sun - CHINA
F: Tukhtiyeva - KAZ
F: Jin - CHINA

Second All Star Team:
N/M: Takahashi - JPN
D: Fujimoto - JPN
D: Aoki - JPN
F: Yoneyama - JPN

F: Yakovchuk - KAZ
F: Hirano - JPN

Farewell South Korea - World Ranked 27th Best Women's Ice Hockey Team

Lost 10-0 to Japan, 11-0 to Kazakhstan, 10-0 to China.

Then lost to North Korea 6-1 but when Kyousun Lee scored to make it 1-1 it was really great.



NK/SK warm up in demilitarised zone



Preconceived idea that they hate each other disappear when teams leave ice together

But SK players stay to talk to media in mixed zone

The Goalscorer

In some ways, the player of the games.

Bandy. Yes, Live International Bandy!

I would like to suggest that there is not another Englishman with as much knowledge of Asian Women's Ice Hockey as me. After a visit to Medeu up in the mountains outside Almaty, I'd now like to put myself in at least the top 5 of UK based Englishmen who have some knowledge of Bandy. I would still be a long way behind Charlie Brougham who had to commentate on the sport along with former GB and Cardiff Devils Ice Hockey player Shannon Hope, but at least I can tell you that it's a football pitch sized ice pad, maybe a shade smaller, with field hockey sized goals and two teams on skates with slightly curved sticks playing with a ball rather than puck. I can tell you that Mongolia are much better than Kyrgyzstan, and that Kazakhstan are better than Mongolia. I am also now in a minority of people who know how to spell Kyrgyzstan, as are you...

The Medeu Arena is the most beautiful sports venue I have ever seen. In the mountains, beautiful air, if it had snowed a bit more it would have been even greater. There is a speed skating track around the side where many records have been set. there are mountains around three sides and fantastic views from all around.

View from the cable car

Kyrgyzstan fans go wild, inspite of team trailing 10-0 to Mongolia at half time

Mongolian National Bandy Squad Member

After the game (17-0 final score, I think) I went with some of the Canadian Crew even further up the mountains. This was amazing. Had a pretty good pizza, even though the horse meat sausage grill smelled and looked a bit more tasty. Further up is Chimbulak Ski Resort which is where the Giant Slalom took place, but not the day I was there....We chatted about 'Bucket Lists' which I found out was a list of things, in this case sporting events, you wanted to do before you died, maybe it comes from 'kicking the bucket', I don't know. This is because I mentioned I'd given up a trip to Dallas for The Superbowl for this trip, but that I didn't care because I'd done six Superbowls. The Superbowl was on the Bucket List of most of the guys, but all this made me realise that I have been to a lot of stuff and there are not too many things on my sporting Bucket List any more. A Stanley Cup Final would be nice, the French or US Open Tennis, going to a Cagliari Serie A match.... um, that's all I could think of. But then going up to the mountains and meeting nice people and watching Bandy and enjoying the view would have been on my bucket list if I had even knew you could do such a thing. 

Finish Line - Giant Slalom

Chimbulak

This was a really good day with some good chat with Jeff, the director, and the guys. To think, I was so tired through work and jet lag that I nearly slept in and missed all this. So glad I made the effort. Chatted with an interpreter from the Baluan Sholak called Aziza on the way down about Almaty and Aktau (which seems to be the rich bit of Kazakhstan, by the Caspian Sea, but she told me it was a three day train ride away!) then back into town and the hotel to do my game notes and grab a nap.  Back to the Hockey tomorrow. But I think I could get into Bandy.

North Korea

Better than South Korea. Worse than Japan.

Merry Christmas Kazakhstan!

Yes, it's February so what's with the Christmas Trees?

The Astana International Hotel in Almaty is ok, a bit in need of an update, but ok. But there are Christmas decorations everywhere.
Never got around to asking why.
The hotel is on about four floors. Three floors of rooms, the ground floor which is a bar which is also at reception, then a basement floor which consists of a massage room, gym, a place to buy rugs (!) and a sports bar called, as far as I could tell, Eurospor. This place is seriously strange but the beer is about 150 tenge cheaper than upstairs at 330 (about 2 dollars US), the vodka even cheaper and the tea free. Nice staff and football on TV. They had three screens hooked up to just about every type of sat box you could imagine, cables coming out of everywhere, English, Italian, Spanish and Turkish matches all the time and a screen showing results from all over. But usually I was the only non gambling, non Turk in the place. Not a shred of glamour to the place but it was interesting. Smokey. Bar staff wore Chelsea shirts, home and away. 
Upstairs they served food in the bar. Can I suggest the club sandwich. Avoid the lasagne. My buddy Neil tried it, sent it back, but no amount of microwaving could make it hot.
In fact stay safe with the club sandwiches. With chips of course. Everything here with chips. A barmaid called Kamshat said rather disloyally "Not good cook here.....Russian".

Hotel a very good choice if you are going to a football match at the National Stadium, or the Baluan Sholak Sports Palace which is two minutes away....