The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has approved a new calendar of matches for the World Championship in the third division of group A, which will be held from 3 to 8 April 2022 in Luxembourg with the participation of the national team of Turkmenistan.
Initially, six teams were supposed to take part in this competition. However, in February, the DPRK national team refused to participate in the World Cup due to the coronavirus pandemic, as a result of which five teams - Luxembourg, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates - will fight for a ticket to the second division of group B.
As reported on the IIHF website, Turkmen hockey players will play their first match at the World Championship on April 3 against the UAE team. April 7 - with rivals from Taiwan and will end the tournament on April 8 with a game with the Turkish national team.
All matches will be held at the ice arena in Kokelshöhe, Luxembourg.
Only the winner of the tournament in Luxembourg will receive a ticket to the 2023 World Cup of the second division of group B.
As the chairman of the Hockey Federation of Turkmenistan Dzhora Khudaiberdiyev told the ZV correspondent, 20 hockey players from three hockey clubs of the country - «Galkana», «Shira» and «Oguzhan» are preparing for the upcoming world championship in Luxembourg as part of the national team. Since March 22, the team has switched to two daily training sessions.
Preparing the national team of Turkmenistan for the world championship as head coach Bayram Allayarov, under whose leadership our hockey players won small gold medals in the second division tournament in the program of the VIII Asian Winter Games in Sapporo (Japan) in 2017, in 2018 they won in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) qualifying tournament for the World Cup with the participation of four teams, and in 2019 they made their debut at the World Championships in Sofia (Bulgaria), finishing third in the third division.
