Home EM for Jona and Moritz on the eight wheels

Inline skate hockey is closely related to ice hockey, except that the players don’t chase a puck on skates but on eight wheels, but rather a hard plastic ball that hurts like a rubber disc if you get it on an unprotected part of the body. The U19 European Junior Championships will take place in Amstetten on Friday with the opening game between Austria and Great Britain (8 p.m.). The host club Shadows Amstetten, which is organizing the tournament, is setting up the 40 x 20 meter standardized barriers in the ice rink today, which the Austrian association ISHA (Inline-Skaterhockey Austria) has provided.

“The EM is a huge motivation for the many kids who play in our youth club, and I believe that the matches will also be well worth seeing for the audience,” says Shadows chairman Bernhard Brandstetter, who also pulls all the strings organizing the championship. Funding, including from the municipality, has made it possible for the hall rental for the young sport to become affordable and Amstetten has been awarded the contract as the venue by the International Inline Skater Hockey Federation (IISHF), which currently has ten state associations, including India and Israel. belong to, while the memberships of Russia and Ukraine are currently dormant.

With the field still small, only Spain and Denmark are missing from the U19 tournament in Amstetten at the weekend. Gold, silver and bronze only make up the four remaining teams Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany and Austria among themselves. “But that still promises great hockey sport,” announces Brandstetter.

Two local heroes from Amstetten don’t go onto the ice with their hockey sticks in red-white-red eagle jerseys, but onto the concrete hall: Moritz Kreipl and Jona Langenreiter, players in the Shadows in the regional league, for whom the winter season will start again with the Amstetten ice hockey wolves begins. Before that it’s inline hockey again.

Incidentally, the general inline skater hockey championships in Amstetten have already been scheduled for the beginning of September next year.