Rising Longford sports star seeks support to achieve his green inline dream

Pre-pandemic anyone walking on the banks of the tail end of the Longford spur of the Royal Canal would have heard the sound of a raucous gathering from an industrial units on the Athlone Road.

This was the home to not just one, but two local inline hockey teams, the Hawks and the Jokers. Inline hockey is a cousin of ice hockey. All the deft athleticism of the colder sport, the games run a little shorter. Inline games are two 20 minute halves, compared with ice hockeys three twenty minute periods.

The island of Ireland has twelve inline hockey clubs, eight of which are in the Republic. At present Sport Ireland does not recognise inline hockey, or in fact any roller sports. As a result of this participants fund their own passion. Which is fine, up to the point where they represent their country abroad.

So what happens when there's a major international tournament thousands of miles away and you have been asked to represent your country? Longford native Mel Voronkovas (20), who is selected as part of the Irish national senior mens inline hockey teams to participate in the upcoming World Roller Games in Argentina, has decided to organise a fundraiser.

The World Roller Games are an international biennial multi-sport event, comprising all the world roller sport disciplines as regulated by the World Skate international federation. To get to them Mel has to stump up his own cash.

As with other inflationary increases the cost of Mel's trip has shot up and with no funding from the Irish government Mel set up a GoFundMe campaign to enable him to represent his country in South America.

“It's ice hockey, but there is no ice,” Mel described his sport, “it's on roller blades. The sticks are custom made and the puck is plastic. The team comprises of 10 players, two goalies and eight others. There are four players and one goalie on the court at any one time.”

The aforementioned kerfuffle on Friday night in Mastertech Business Park started in 2014. At its height the inline hockey hub accommodated three teams, but this time last year the clubs had to dismantle the facility following notice to vacate the property from the owner.

“We did have a court in Longford, but Covid brought about the end of it because of a lack of money. We still have two teams in Longford,” Mel tells, “The community is fairly tight knit. People who like the sport really like it and come along to support it, but we don't really get many casual supporters.”

The talented young inline hockey player has come up through the ranks. This is not the first time he's been chosen to represent his country: “The senior trials took place in Dublin, and from that the coach picked the best players. It's exciting to play for your country. I got selected two years ago to play for the junior team, that was a great honour, but to play for the senior team is even better.”

His last trip to the World Roller Games when he played for an U18 Irish team was a little easier. That competition took place in Barcelona. Crossing the Atlantic is a little more expensive: “We don't have a lot of funds, and we don't have any big sponsorship, so it is all funded by the players.”

The Argentinian games is a multi-discipline gathering of small wheel sports. The event takes place between October and November of this year: “There are a lot of games as part of the world skate games, skateboarding, scootering, inline freestyle, roller derby, and loads of team sports,” Mel explains.

As much as his first name suggests Longford, Mel's family name alludes to eastern European origins. However this is not where his interest in his chosen sport derived: “My parents are from Lithuania, but I was born here. I used to play basketball a lot, but I kind of lost interest in it. My mum was scrolling on her phone one day and found a link for the inline hockey club in Longford, so I decided to just try it. I enjoyed it a lot and it developed from there.”

Mel says the inline version of the sport is a bit different to the “gloves off” image of ice hockey: “It can get physical, but it's probably not as extreme as some of the things you see in ice hockey.”

To help achieve his goal of playing for Ireland in Argentina Mel is hoping to raise €1,500. Donations to help him make it to the World Roller Games can be made at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/world- roller-games-2022-player-fundraiser