IIHF cancels several world championships: It’s shocking and absolutely devastating – ŠPORT.sk

10:30 UPDATED FOR THE EXPRESSION OF GM WOMEN ‘S REPRESENTATION OF THE SR

The championship was to take place from 8 to 15 January in Sweden. The IIHF also canceled the 1st Division A-Group tournament in Győr, where the Slovak national team under 18 was to start.

There will be no other tournaments of the lower divisions of the Women’s Under-18 World Championships, nor will the men’s under-20 championships, except for the highest category, which will start on Sunday in Canada. Together they canceled the six January championships.

The IIHF said the decision was made on the recommendation of its health committee. “It’s a tough reality that we have to face. Just like last year, we have to make difficult decisions and cancel the IIHF men’s and women’s tournaments, including the top category for under-18 players, for the second year in a row.” IIHF President Luc Tardif said. The official website of the federation informed.

“It’s shocking information that came two weeks before the start of the championship. It’s bad, because the girls’ birth year 2003 and 2004 didn’t have any top events like the World Cup. But I understand why the organizers made that decision. Health is a priority.“General manager of the women’s national teams of the Slovak Republic Ľubomíra Kožanová stated this for hockeyslovakia.sk.

“It’s a pity, the current year is stronger in our country, so to speak. We won a bronze medal with him at the 2020 Youth Olympics in Lausanne and we believed it would be a year that could bring a medal, even to try to get back to the top divisions. “

The cancellation of international events regrets the representatives of Slovak women’s hockey, all the more so because the training activity in the country has been at a low level over the past two years and many girls are not training at all. League matches are also currently banned.

“It affects us a lot and I am worried that in the future there will be someone representing the Slovak Republic. It may happen that many girls end up hockey. They have not had a championship for two years, they cannot play league matches in Slovakia, they cannot train. There may be a few girls left who will have a strong motivation to stay with the senior national team.

But with the membership we have, it’s absolutely devastating. When the organizers, whether our division in Hungary or a lower division in Austria, find out two weeks before the event that there will be no championship, it means huge losses for the organizers but also for the entire women’s hockey community.

I believe that in the future, the IIHF will think about organizing these world championships earlier in December during the association break, when several events took place this year as well. Slovakia thus remains the last organizer of the top division of the Women’s Under-18 World Championships, which we organized in December 2019 in Bratislava, “added Kožanová.