ICE HOCKEY (5)

The World ice hockey championships have just finished in Helsinki and Stockholm, the first time that they have been shared between two countries (they will also be shared next year, and in the same two places). Russia were a class above the rest this time, winning all seven of their preliminary games, plus the three in the knock-out stages. Their 6-2 victory tonight, coming back from letting in a shock goal after just over a minute, reflected their superiority. And in Yevgeni Malkin, they had the tournament's absolute best player; top scorer, best forward and MVP.

If Russia's victory was no surprise, their opponents in the final, Slovakia, were. Coming into the tournament, they were ranked tenth in the world and had just lost two warm-up games to Denmark. Yet they played out of their skins, coming back from 3-2 down to beat Canada in the quarter finals, and then sensationally beating big brother the Czech Republic 3-1 in the semi-final. Their muscular style was based on solid defence, with goalkeeper Jan Laco winning the best goalkeeper award and their huge back Zdeno Chara the best defenceman award.

I love ice hockey. You can quite easily watch a boring football match in which there are very few chances and no goals, but that's extremely rare in ice hockey. Things also happen very quickly, so the game is never over until it's over. The Czech Republic scored with 29 seconds left to beat Sweden in the quarter finals; Finland scored with 9 seconds left to beat the U.S. in theirs. I played field hockey at school, and was quite good at it, but it's not nearly as good as the frozen version. It's a pity I never really learned to skate.

Walter Blotscher