Women ball hockey players aiming to set record with 65-hour marathon

Ball hockey players in Sherwood Park, Alta., play the second game in a 65-hour marathon tournament for a Guinness World Record attempt on July 5, 2024. (Matt Marshall / CTV News Edmonton)

A group of women in Sherwood Park have set out to play ball hockey for 65 hours straight. 

The group is aiming to beat the previous record for an indoor ball hockey marathon of 62 hours, set in 2016 in Regina. 

"I do tournaments but I wanted to go bigger," explained organizer Tanya Hamilton on Friday. 

To qualify for Guinness World Record consideration, four teams of six players will take turns playing games in three-hour shifts. 

The players won't get more than three hours of rest for the duration of the record attempt. 

They also are not allowed to leave the Strathcona Olympiette Centre until the last game Sunday evening and so have set up tents inside the rink.  

Despite the size of the challenge, Hamilton's passion was met with equal enthusiasm.

"Once I put it out there, that we were going to do a world record attempt, the girls came to me. And we even actually had to cut some girls," she told CTV News Edmonton. 

As of Friday at noon, the group was six hours – or two games – in. 

"Team's doing good. Lots of bonding right off the bat. We gotta work together or it's not going to happen," player Kelly Boudreau said. 

When asked how she planned to get through two-and-a-half more days, she said, "Probably just laugh it off. A lot of ice. A lot of massaging."

Unlike the team that set the record in 2016, the roster in Sherwood Park is all female, which Boudreau said made the record attempt "more special." 

"I think women in sports has become the talk of the town lately – you know, PWHL inaugural season – so I think it's really great to bring awareness to women in sports," Hamilton added. 

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Matt Marshall