Meeyah Forbes, 17, is no stranger to representing her country
A young ice hockey player from East Yorkshire is excited to be representing her country in the sport this month. Meeyah Forbes, 17, has represented at England and Great Britain level since she was nine-years-old.
Now, the teenager, who is a forward with Hull’s Kingston Diamonds club, is in Poland wearing the colours of GB. Her place in the squad was confirmed in December.
With her teammates, Meeyah is participating in the U18 Women’s World Championship Division – Group B. Matches are taking place at the 1,500-capacity Janow Arena, in Katowice, with Meeyah and the rest of the squad facing competition from hosts Poland, along with Australia, Austria, China and Spain, in the six-team tournament, running to January 11.
Meeyah said: “Last year, in Latvia, we won gold and got promoted to a higher division. Going into Poland we will be playing against much harder competition.
“I feel really hopeful about it. When you’re playing with the team, it’s like family.”
Meeyah got into the sport because of her dad, Mike Forbes, who played for the Hull Jets, the semi-professional outfit under The Stingrays, which later became The Pirates. Meeyah started on the ice aged just four years old, giving rise to her developing ability as she began training with the Kingston Sharks youth team at Hull Ice Arena.
“Dad’s still playing now,” said Meeyah, “I love learning different skills from him and different patterns of play.
“There’s always something new to learn with ice hockey. It’s never the same thing and the sport can be as big as you want it to be.”
Meeyah said there was such a feel-good factor from whizzing around on the ice and “feeling the wind in your face”. “Women’s ice hockey is still in the shadows compared to men’s, for sure,” she said.
She said although more females were taking it up and more spectators wanted to watch, it could be “so much bigger”. Meeyah encouraged anyone to “give it a go”.
“After you stop being scared of falling, it doesn’t hurt as much,” she said. “The thing is, a lot of people don’t realise there even is ice hockey in Hull.”
In the last U18 Women’s World Championship, when Meeyah was 16, she scored a total of seven goals, including two hat-tricks, during the tournament. Her side returned a 100 per cent winning record, taking gold and winning promotion to the U18 Women’s Division I World Championship.
Sean Alderson, GB ice hockey head coach, said: “We want to take last season’s success into this year’s tournament in Katowice. We know that stepping up a level will be a tough test but I know the players are relishing the opportunity.”
In 2019, Hull Live reported on Meeyah being handpicked to represent England at U13 level, having just returned from featuring in Team GB’s U16 global games. At the time, her mum, Anna, said: “Ice hockey is not really a known sport outside of the cities like Nottingham, Sheffield and Hull.
“We hope that Meeyah continues with her talents for the years to come and puts Hull on the map. She has quickly achieved a high standard from such a young age.”
You can find out more about Kingston Diamonds across social media platforms and about GB ice hockey on its website and on social media.