Eastwood’s Anna Badaoui among Aussie under 18 ice hockey side hoping for World Championship glory

Anna Badaoui will be trading the Aussie sun for the Polish snow in January as part of the Australian under 18 side for the women’s ice hockey World Championships

Eastwood teen Anna Badaoui is part of the Aussie squad for the under 18 womens ice hockey World Championships. Picture: Craig Wilson

Most of us will spend our summer trying to keep cool. Anna Badaoui won’t have that problem.

The 16-year-old from Eastwood is heading to Poland in January to represent the Australian under-18’s women’s ice hockey team at the Women’s World Championships.

Anna has been an avid ice skater since preschool and has played ice hockey on and off since she was eight.

“I love the speed and contact in the sport,” the Year 11 Santa Sabina College student said.

Australia will be competing in the Division 1 Group B tournament in Katowice from Wednesday, January 6, until Tuesday, January 12.

Anna has played ice hockey on and off since she was eight.

They will be going up against elite competition from China, Denmark, France, Great Britain and Poland.

The young women earned a promotion to Division 1 Group B after winning all three games of their qualification tournament in Spain earlier this year.

“I’m so excited and really proud to have the opportunity to represent my country,” Anna said.

“This is the first year that we’ll be playing in the higher division, so I’ve been training really hard to prepare to go up against some really great teams.”

While she’s over there, Anna will also get the opportunity to go to the World War II concentration camp, Auschwitz.