27.06.2011 | Lukáš Souček, Hana Ježková

This has been my biggest success, ever! says Petr Hemsky

Czechs fulfilled the greatest expectations and won gold medals as hosts of the world championship. The gold medal game brought such an interesting performance. Americans showed their strength in powerplays. For Czechs, especially the last few minutes were the most dramatic of the tournament. They managed to keep the score 3-2, though, and became the world champions for the first time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I am really happy we managed to win gold medals in Pardubice. I can only thank the whole team and all of the people around us that kept the team together. It was a long way to go. I have to repeat it. I am really happy and I can´t find words to explain the feeling," the head coach of team Czech republic flipped over the success at the beginning of the press conference.

Then he answered the question: How did the way to gold begin? "I think it´s not easy to choose the right players for inline hockey. We have been putting the team together for a long time. We suprised our rivals last year but this year, we were stronger. And we had burnished the team before the beginning of the championship.

The ice hockey clubs helped us by letting players to play at the inline hockey world championship. That was the core. And you have to have a great goalie. That´s what I said at the beginning of the tournament."

Petr Hemsky praised the whole team but didn´t want to emphasise individualities. "I have to say the whole team did well. I definitelly can´t name individual players. Everybody worked for the team and the team could have relied on everybody."

Great success, but almost no celebration. "I will celebrate a little with the players tonight. But tomorrow will be just another ordinary day."

"Gold medal is a gold medal. Especially when we won it at the world championship in Pardubice, where I was born. This is definitely my biggest success," said Petr Hemský.

Six thousand fans visited the gold medal game between the Czech republic and the USA. Hardly anybody expected such a huge crowd. "Questions about ticket availiability had indicated some people could come. But I was really surprised! I am glad to have seen so many fans coming. I guess they saw inline hockey is a high level sport. I would be happy if there are more fans in the future to help inline get as high as it belongs.

It would be great if we have inline rink availiable for the whole year. That would be quite important for young players. Something like that is a part of ordinary life in the USA.

We had some inline hockey players, who play ice hockey during the season, speaking about Martin Vozdecky or Luděk Brož. Those are both in-line hockey players. We have some ice hockey players who only join the inline hockey team for the championship. But it would be great to bring up some inline specialists," says Hemsky who has been involved in inline hockey for many years.

Lots of coaches weren´t satisfied with referees at the tournament. The Czech coach had the same oppinion. "I have learnt not to criticize referees. Both in ice and inline hockey. The referees ain´t good. The Swedish coach wasn´t satisfied yesterday, we could have criticized the officials in the gold medal game. Inline hockey is much more difficult because there only are two referees and it´s easier for them to miss something. I guess they should think about having three officials on the rink."

Finally the expected question came. Wouldn´t it be better to only play the IIHF world championship and not the FIRS one? "I said it long time ago. For me, there´s only one true world championship and it´s this one. The FIRS one doesn´t exist for me. That´s some beach competition and I don´t play that one," a little overstatement form the Czech coach at the end.

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