National Ice Hockey Team to participate in training camp in Belarus as a part of preparation to 2019 World Championship
The national hockey team of Turkmenistan will make its debut in the 2019 World Championship Division III, which will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 22 to 28 April.
The Turkmen team will compete with national teams of Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Turkey, Chinese Taipei and South Africa. Though these teams have experienced legionnaires, Turkmen hockey players are aimed to get leading standings positions.
In the qualification tournament in Sarajevo, Turkmen hockey players made the sensation defeating the host team by a 13: 3 score and secured a place in the 2019 World Championship Division III.
As a part of preparation for this world tournament, the national team will hold final training camp in Minsk from March 16 to April 6. The team comprises of players Galkan HC – country’s many time champion – of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Turkmenistan, as well as Nesil HC of the Institute under the Ministry of Interior Affairs, Shir HC of the Ministry of Trade, Vatanchi HC of the Institute under the Ministry of Defense of the country and others.
Jora Hudayberdiyev, Chairman of the Ice Hockey Federation of Turkmenistan, noted that the upcoming training camp with qualified sportsmen would help strengthen physical conditioning and endurance of the players. Hockey players will hold five friendly matches with leading clubs of the Republic of Belarus, which will train their power and will to win.
In previous training camp in Belarus from December 19 to January 9, the team of Bayram Allayarov trained the game tactics and combinations and conducted individual trainings focusing on improving the qualities of every player.
Most probably that in the 2019World Championship, the Turkmen national team will repeat its success in the 2017 VIII Asian Games in the Japanese Sapporo, where won a bright victory. On the way to triumph in the Asian Federation II Division tournament, the team defeated hockey players from Malaysia (9: 2), destroyed Macao (16: 0), Indonesia (12: 2), and, in the final, won 7: 3 over the Kyrgyz team.
In the club international tournament in Riga in 2016, the national team of Turkmenistan competed on the same level as representatives of the strongest teams of Russia, the Baltic countries and others, putting up a good fight. In the match for the third place, Galkan HC surrendered the place to the hockey players from Switzerland.
In general, Turkmen hockey has good perspectives. Its rapid development was noted at the past Congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) in Malta.
In 2018, the Hockey Federation of Turkmenistan, one of the youngest in the world, joined the IIHF.
