Silver souvenirs of Taiwan

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Back from the World under-18 International Ice Hockey Federation Championship 2009 in Taipei are Mitchell Frear (15), of Queenstown, Chris Dale (17), of Gore, Gareth Lloyd (16), of Cromwell, and Luke Pickering (15), of Queenstown. Photo by Felicity Wolfe.

The players who arrived at Queenstown Airport were part of the national team which won silver at the division III, group A championship.

None of them were in the team previously - and despite several newcomers in the squad, New Zealand managed to go one better than last year's bronze medals.

Mitchell Frear and Luke Pickering, of Queenstown, Gareth Lloyd, of Cromwell, and Chris Dale, of Gore, travelled to the championship last month to Taipei, after a week-long training camp in Auckland.

In Taipei they played against teams from Australia, Chinese Taipei, South Africa and Mongolia, losing only one game to gold medallists Australia.

Mitchell's mother, Luana Frear, said the team was very happy with the result.

"We never expected to get gold - Australia were always the favourites . . . but Chinese Taipei were classed as second favourites, so we thought they might get bronze."

Australia will now be promoted to division II and, depending on which team gets relegated, next year could be exciting.

"We just have to wait and see," Mrs Frear said.

Mitchell, the youngest player on the team, was named Most Valuable Player in the match against Mongolia, and was second-highest scoring defender in the championships.

The boys' priority before returning to school today was to catch up on some sleep after a gruelling long haul flight home.