The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has canceled the World Youth Championship due to the high number of COVID-19 cases among players. This was announced on Thursday, December 30, by Sport-Express.
The federation stressed that the health of the players is a priority.
The decision to cancel the competition was made after a series of positive tests for coronavirus in the national teams. In recent days, three meetings have been canceled between teams from the United States and Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Finland, Russia and Slovakia.
Earlier, on December 29, the Russian national team was credited with a technical defeat due to a positive test for COVID-19 from striker Matvey Michkov. At the same time, the hockey player’s agent Sergei Fedotov said that the athlete feels great, despite the positive result.
The Slovakia-Russia match was to be held on December 30 at 00:30 Moscow time. According to the tournament regulations, the Slovaks won a victory with a score of 1: 0.
On December 29, the game between Finland and the Czech Republic was also canceled, which was scheduled to start at 22:00 Wednesday. The reason was a positive test for coronavirus in the Czech national team. Prior to that, a technical defeat was awarded to the US team in the match with Switzerland.
After that it was decided to hold a meeting on the expediency of continuing the tournament.
The World Championship was held in Canada in the cities of Edmonton and Red Deer and was supposed to end on the night of January 6. The current winner is the USA national team.
The Russian national team played in group B with teams from Sweden, USA, Slovakia, Switzerland. In the first round, Sergey Zubov’s team lost to the Swedes (3: 6), in the second they beat the Swiss (4: 2).
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
