Muscat — An ecstatic Marlena Rybacha heralded Poland’s greatest outdoor achievement after she led her side to Hockey5s World Cup bronze.
Poland proved a class act in a 4-2 win over South Africa, with Amelia Katerla scoring all four of the Poles’ goals to finish third.
“I played three times at the Indoor World Cup and this has been an amazing experience.” said Rybacha, who plays for Dutch side Tilburg.
“Even though I have played for 20 years this is the first time I have played a World Cup outdoors.
“I think this is the biggest achievement in international hockey for us.”
Rybacha, 36, hoped that success here would propel the sport in Poland. But she fell short of saying that Poland – who have been runners-up several times at the Men’s Indoor World Cup – could even bid for a future Hockey5s World Cup.
“A lot of people don’t know that hockey exists in Poland. It is a shame but maybe after this achievement it will get better, be promoted more and we can get fans.
“It’s huge that we achieved something here. Hockey in Poland is small and getting less and less popular and it feels like we will disappear sometime.
“But this, I hope it will put extra fans in the sport that we can go ‘this is cool’.”
Katerla finished with 10 goals from six games.
