Ice Hockey IIHF World Championships 2017

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Mascots of 2017 IIHF World Championships in Cologne and Paris

 

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Sunday will starts first world championships tournaments, the Under 20 Division I A in Germany, Under 20 Division I B in Hungary and Under 20 Division II A in Estonia.

 

 

 

It’s the time of the year when many IIHF championships begin, starting in the men’s U20 and women’s tournaments at various levels from the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship in Canada to the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division II Group B Qualification in Chinese Taipei.

What do the events look like? You may have a glimpse from top events you may have visited or seen on TV or behind-the-scenes videos like this one from the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in the Czech Republic with stars, huge arenas, world-famous cities and millions of fans following.

But what does it look like at the many lower-division events? What needs to be done to organize such tournaments that happen away from the spotlight of the big hockey nations in many other of the 77 IIHF member countries?

The Romanian Ice Hockey Federation and the organizers in Brasov documented what happened around the rink during the 2016 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship Division II Group A last spring where Poland earned promotion ahead of host Romania, Lithuania, Great Britain, Croatia and the Netherlands.

Check out the action on and off the ice and what players, coaches, staff and volunteers say in this 14-minute documentary soon before the first international championships of the season begin this Sunday.

 

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Monday will start the first women´s World Championship tournament, the Women´s Division II Group B Qualification tournament in Taipei City.

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Day D of the IIHF World Championships tournaments.

Today Starting the Under 20 Division I A, Under 20 Division I B and Under 20 Division II A.

 

Todays schedule  11th December 2016

 

Men's U20 Div. I A  in Bremerhaven (GER)

(GMT +1)

13:00  France - Belarus

16:30  Germany - Kazakhstan

20:00  Norway - Austria

 

Men's U20 Div I B in Budapest  (HUN)

(GMT +1)

13:00  Ukraine - Poland

16:30  Hungary - Italy

20:00  Slovenia - Great Britain

 

Men's U20 Div II A in Tallinn (EST)

(GMT +2)

13:00  Romania - Croatia

16:30  Estonia - Japan

20:00  Lithuania - Netherlands

 

 

Same systems as each year, Round-Robin tournaments, tournament winner will be promoted into higher division next year, the last team will be relegated for lower division next year. teams ranked 2-5 remains in the same division also for the next edition.

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and we have the very very very first result of the 2016/17 seasons World championships

 

In Under 20 Division II A in Tallinn Croatia defeated Romania 4-3 after GWS. Croatia was down 1-3 still 10 minutes to go but managed to tie the game and won in the penalties shootout session.

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Taekwon-Do world champ scores

Amalia Koleva with her equipment for ice hockey and taekwon-do.

 

 

The 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship Division II Group B Qualification starts on Monday in Taipei City. The host Chinese Taipei will make its debut in the competition and the other participating countries are Belgium, Bulgaria, Hong Kong and South Africa. One player to watch at the Annex Ice Rink is Bulgarian forward Amalia Koleva.

Koleva scored the most goals (3) for her national team a year ago when the qualification was held in Sofia and this was her best showing on the international stage. Well, not really. It’s better to say “on international ice” because she has over 80 (eighty) medals from World and European Championships in Taekwon-Do (ITF) since 2001. In 2016 Koleva won the European title in power test and silver medal in the team sparring competition in Thessaloniki. The 36-years-old athlete has a collection of 4 World (individual sparring under 57 kg in 2009, team special technique in 2011, team sparring in 2013 and individual power test in 2015) and 15 European titles.

On top of that she has two more bronze medals from the 2013 WAKO World Championships in kickboxing – kick light and light contact under 55 kg. And she competed successfully in savate (French boxing) and muay thai (the combat sport of Thailand). At one time she was on the Bulgarian national team in four different sports – taekwon-do (ITF), ice hockey, kickboxing and savate.

“Since this year I have concentrated only at taekwondo and hockey, but my schedule is so busy as before,” says Koleva, who is an international instructor and is working with 40-45 kids in three different groups. Some of them are following into her steps practising a second sport, although not ice hockey.

“I was lucky with my discovery of ice hockey, because I had some kind of background after practising figure skating as a kid. Everything happened by chance. Eight years ago, during a free skate, I was approached by Tina Lisichkova. At that time she was the captain of the Bulgarian national women’s team and was looking for new players,” recalls Koleva. After one month she was playing international games. The beginning was quite difficult with nightmarish losses at the Olympic Qualification in Latvia.

It must be hard for her to accept defeats on the ice after so much success in taekwon-do. “Actually, hockey is relaxing for me. It’s a great pleasure to play this exciting game and to know that you can count on your teammates. In taekwon-do you’re alone and you suffer from every error that you make. I don’t like to lose, but I know the reality in Bulgarian women’s ice hockey. Most of the girls have started at age 17-18 and that’s too late for hockey. Now the top players have to train and prepare the next generations from very early age and then we’ll see a difference,” says Koleva, but she doesn’t think that she is quite good to be a hockey coach.

Contrary to the expectation Koleva thinks that hockey is giving her some edge in taekwon-do instead of the opposite: “We are under enormous pressure in taekwon-do, because everyone thinks that we have to win medals and if you don’t do it – it’s a tragedy. I have the opposite situation in hockey and now I’m bringing this mental approach to my taekwon-do career – it is not a big deal if I screwed up. Not that happened to me recently.”

Koleva is 160 cm tall and stands quite strong on her skates. When there is a physical contact, the opponent is falling on the ice almost every time. “It comes from inside of me. I have the flair for this stuff, how to approach these situations. Taekwon-do and hockey are contact sports, although in different aspects,” thinks Koleva. Body-checking is not allowed in women’s hockey, but sometimes she can’t resist the temptation and then has to sit in the penalty box.

Koleva still has the motivation to practise two sports (taekwon-do at ABC Fight Club and hockey at NSA) and is joking that she even has free time: “The stress on the body is different, the time of the practices and the competition period too, so I can combine the sports. There are days in which I have to work with the kids and to practise taekwon-do or ice hockey, but one day a week I have all three commitments. During the weekend I’m working at an artificial ice rink in the mall.” For some time Monday was sort of her off-day with only one taekwon-do practice.

The Bulgarian national women’s team flew to Taipei City yesterday and the main focus is to stop the streak of seven straight defeats in the IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship program. The last win dates back to 21st March 2014 – 4-2 against Hong Kong.

“Our best chance is the first game on Monday against the hosts as they are making their debut. Hong Kong already had two games in the Olympic Qualification this season and we didn’t participate, so they are ahead in the preparation for sure. We had some good moments against them and South Africa last year, but lost both games. I hope that it will be closer this time around,” said Koleva before leaving for her first trip to Chinese Taipei.

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 2 - 5  Sad start for Italy..

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Men's U20 Div. I A  in Bremerhaven (GER)

(GMT +1)

13:00  France - Belarus  3-6

16:30  Germany - Kazakhstan 5-3

20:00  Norway - Austria  3-6

 

Men's U20 Div I B in Budapest  (HUN)

(GMT +1)

13:00  Ukraine - Poland  2-4

16:30  Hungary - Italy  5-2

20:00  Slovenia - Great Britain  4-3 after OT

 

Men's U20 Div II A in Tallinn (EST)

(GMT +2)

13:00  Romania - Croatia  3-4 after GWS

16:30  Estonia - Japan  2-6

20:00  Lithuania - Netherlands  5-0

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Schedule  12th December 2016

 

Men's U20 Div. I A  in Bremerhaven (GER)

(GMT +1)

13:00  Kazakhstan - France

16:30  Belarus - Norway

20:00  Austria - Germany

 

Men's U20 Div I B in Budapest  (HUN)

(GMT +1)

13:00  Italy - Ukraine

16:30  Great Britain - Hungary

20:00  Poland - Slovenia

 

Men's U20 Div II A in Tallinn (EST)

(GMT +2)

13:00  Japan - Croatia

16:30  Netherlands - Romania

20:00  Lithuania - Estonia

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Schedule  12th December 2016

 

Women's Division II B Qualification in Taipei City (TPE)

(GMT +8)

15:30  Belgium - South Africa

19:00  Chinese Taipei - Bulgaria

day off - Hong Kong

 

 

system the same as usual, 5 teams, round robin, the first nation will qualify for next years womens Division II Group B world championship.