Team Hong Kong put an entry into the Nations Cup Sixes Tournament at the Germany Lacrosse convention in Dresden Germany over this past weekend. With only two days of practice and players coming to Germany from all over the world, Hong Kong surprised everyone with their play. With a squad made up of Hong Kong eligible players, some from the Men's Representative Team and some from the U21 Representative team, the group gelled quickly and got out to a fast start Friday night against Poland coming away with a 24-8 victory in the first game of the tournament.

This first victory served notice that Hong Kong was here to play and the next day the two opponents were ready. In the first match up on Saturday, Team Germany, came out very hard but Hong Kong weathered the storm to defeat Germany 17-9. The next opponent, Switzerland, was waiting in the wings to challenge Hong Kong next. With Hong Kong playing back to back games, Switzerland was hoping to Take advantage o a tired Hong Kong squad. Switzerland used speed to their advantage to keep the game close going into the second half as they pulled close by winning the third quarter. In the end Hong Kong had a very strong fourth quarter and came away victorious, 19-14. Sunday's competition would be the most difficult of all the competitions. With Great Britain being able to draw the best players from Wales, Scotland and England, they had also sailed through the round robin unscathed. With two undefeated teams se to face off, it was not lost on the Hong Kong players that they were facing the #5 teams in the world rankings and it showed in the first few minutes of the final round robin game when Great Britain jumped out to a quick lead. They would never look back even though Hong Kong battled fiercely for 32 minutes and the game ended in a 19-10 loss for Hong Kong. Either way, Hong Kong and Great Britain were set to face off in the championship final on Sunday afternoon and the game did not disappoint. In a back and forth affair with calls and goals coming fast and furiously, the Hong Kong team played a much tighter game with it ending 18-11 and a silver medal for Hong Kong.

Being lead by Keegan Bal of Coquitlam BC and Evan Mok-Lamme of Denver Colorado, the split squad was learning on the fly at this event and improved as the games progressed. Coach Chad Fairfoull stated, "we may have found a version of lacrosse that will allow Hong Kong to be very successful in world competition". "With some more concentrated training, I believe we already have some of the tools needed and we could polish our players into a very competitive Sixes Team. The future is bright." Fairfoull followed up these remarks with, "I am really proud of how these players fought right until the last whistle of every game. And we all want to thank the organizers of the tournament and the other teams who all played so well this weekend in a great event."

Other Hong Kong Teams are also preparing for events with the U21 roster training in Chiang Mai Thailand in preparation for the World U21 Men's Lacrosse championship in Limerick Ireland in early August. The Men's Representative Team are home in Hong Kong preparing for the World Men's Qualifying tournament for the APLU in Korea in early October. We hope these other teams will find success as well.