Doing better than last outing is Hong Kong’s aim at World Lacrosse U20 event

“I think it’s very exciting to be able to host the World Championship in Hong Kong. It’s like a dream,” Gemini Fan Tak-kwan, the Hong Kong head coach, said. “The goal for Hong Kong is to try to beat our ranking of five years ago, so we have to better 12th place.

“I think having the home crowd backing us is going to give us a very big advantage.”

Hong Kong have been placed in Pool D with world No 4 England, world No 5 Japan, Ireland and the Jamaicans.

Hong Kong will play their remaining pool games at Sham Shui Po Sports Ground. Other games will also be played at Kowloon Tsai Sports Ground and Shek Kip Mei Park.

“Our main goal is to play our best, and if we are able to perform 100 per cent to our standard we will be fine,” Fan said.

Hong Kong team captain Anbie Chan Yin-ching was one of those hoping to benefit from seeing some familiar faces in the stands.

“It’s my first time playing in an international tournament and it’s really great being able to have family and friends come in and watch us play,” she said.

Co-captain Scarlett Cowley said that although they faced a tough challenge against England and Japan, they had been preparing for stronger opposition.

“We’ve just been in Japan on a training trip and we’ve been learning their style, but they’re obviously a very good team, and England as well,” she said.

This year marks the seventh edition of the world championships, which have been dominated by five-time winners and defending champions, the United States.

However, Canada head coach Tami Rayner was confident her side could go one better than the silver medal they earned in 2019 and win a second title.

“I expect to see ourselves in the final again. This time, we have a very fast team with a lot of experience, and our coaching staff is very dynamic with a lot of world championship experience,” Rayner said.

“We’re always planning and preparing to play the US, and having been part of the programme for a very long time, this is something that we start to talk about from the very beginning of selecting our team.

“We’re always wanting to knock off the world champions.”

Canada are in Pool B with Chinese Taipei, Haudenosaunee [an alliance of six Native American nations], South Korea and Wales.

Their US rivals are in Pool A with China, Germany, Israel and Puerto Rico.

Australia, the only other team to have won the championship, are in Pool C with Italy, Mexico, New Zealand and Scotland. Pool C is branded the tournament’s “group of death”, as all five teams have the potential to make the knockout stages.

After all the group games have ended, all 20 teams will be ranked from first to last. Those ranked one to eight will progress to the quarter-finals

Teams that rank 9-20 will play two more matches to decide their final placement. Quarter-final losers will play for rankings five to eight.