Mayhem’s Emily McLean – photo by Blindside Trading Cards
Four members of the Mayhem sledge team are heading to Skien in Norway this week for the 2024 World Women's Challenge.
Felicity Gregory and Emily Mclean will be playing for the Great Britain women’s team while Mayhem manager and coach Peter Hagan will travel as Equipment Manager. Mayhem’s Canadian born player Peggy Assinck will play for the Canadian national team.
This is the third time that this event has take place and it currently acts as an unofficial World Championship for women’s international teams. There are, however, hopes that the World Women’s Challenge will help pave the way for ultimately creating a formal Women’s World Championships and, one day, adding the sport to the Paralympic Winter Games programme.
This year’s competition features five teams, with the USA, Canada and Great Britain national teams being joined by composite regional teams called “Team Europe” and “Team Pacific”. Each team will play four round-robin games across four days of competition and Team GB’s fixtures are follows:
25 October - Canada v Great Britain
26 October – Great Britain v USA
27 October - Great Britain v Team Pacific
28 October - Great Britain v Team Europe
The tournament will take place at Skien Fritidspark, a multi-purpose stadium originally built in 1968 and redone in 2008 with indoor sports halls, an ice hockey rink, a large water park, and several out-door sports facilities. The venue also played host earlier this year to the World Para Ice Hockey Championships B-Pool.
The previous two Women’s World Challenge tournaments were held at Green Bay in Wisconsin, USA. At the inaugural competition in 2022, Team USA went undefeated to win gold on home ice, Canada claimed silver and “Team World” took the bronze. In 2023, the USA went undefeated again to defend their title, with Canada once again taking silver and “Team World” skating to bronze.
The full
Great Britain squad is:
- Alysha Atkinson - Peterborough Phantoms
- Freya Levy - Peterborough Phantoms
- Shannon Couch – Cardiff Huskies
- Helen McGivern – GB Women
- Dani Czernuszka-Watts – Cardiff Huskies
- Emily McLean - Manchester Mayhem
- Felicity Gregory – Manchester Mayhem
- Stacey Quirk - Peterborough Phantoms
- Davina Hall – Peterborough Phantoms
- Nicola Terrell - GB Women
- Jodi Hill – Cardiff Huskies
- Jade Williams – Sheffield Steelstings
Peter Hagan, GB Equipment Manager – photo by Team GB Media
Team Staff:
- Breanna Wagner – Head Coach
- Louise Beresford – Asst Coach
- Shirley Packwood – Team Manager / Medic
- Peter Hagan – Equipment Manager