The Txuri Urdin senior women’s team began skating yesterday at 10:15 p.m. It wasn’t a Tuesday night workout. … further. For Irene Senac’s team it was the first day that they got back together on the ice after the incident on the Puigcerdà rink. On Saturday, January 25, the team suffered poisoning as a result of poor combustion in the ice smoothing machine. After the urgent evacuation of the facility, the incident resulted in 15 members of the expedition being treated in the hospitals of Cerdanya, Sant Joan de Espí and Donostia.
After the storm comes calm, although serenity sometimes takes a while to arrive again. «We continue to recover, but we are calmer too. It is true that we continue to be alert to any symptoms. During this week some have continued to experience dizziness, slowness, shortness of breath and, above all, headaches. But it is true that we can say that we are already beginning to return to normality,” explains coach Irene Senac.
The team couldn’t train last week, “we weren’t up to it. The recovery is being slow, longer than we expect and than we would like. We have begun to take flight and feel a little better. The body is our sanctuary and we must respect its times in order to achieve better performance. Getting back into rhythm is not going to be easy,” he says.
Irene Senac at the Ice Palace in Donostia.
Altuna Wolf
The Spanish Ice Sports Federation decided to suspend the team’s commitments last weekend. Mathematically the team has qualified for the playoff but they still have to play those three remaining games. «Our future is still uncertain, they have moved us that league day, but we don’t know very well where we are going to be able to put it. Although we are in, third and fourth place remains to be determined. The incident has not allowed us to celebrate that we are in the playoff, an unthinkable goal at the beginning of the season,” she points out proudly.
Physical recovery was essential the first days, but they do not forget the mental work. «The near future is also a mental challenge for us, although physically we manage to recover three weeks from now to start the playoffs, imagine that we have to return to Puigcerdà. It’s not going to be easy and it can happen. “We have to recover physically and psychologically.”
Back to normal
In this return to normality, they resumed training yesterday, although the group was not complete. Senac is in Budapest with the Spanish Federation, in an international training for instructors from Europe and Africa. In addition, three players from the team have concentrated in the Netherlands with the senior team. «Iraia Ayestaran, Eva Aizpurua and María Serna have a great challenge, defending at the highest national level of the sport in a new division, something historic for Spanish women’s hockey. By the way, the World Cup will also take place in Puigcerdà,” Senac emphasizes.
Combining a minority sport is not easy, but reconciling it has become even more complicated. “The training hours are what they are, and finishing at one in the morning having to make up for missed exams or the hours they have missed from work complicates everything more.”
