The Council of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has decided to cancel the Youth World Championship. This was announced on Wednesday, December 29, by a source of Izvestia.
“The championship has been canceled,” the source said.
An official announcement of the cancellation is expected to follow closer to midnight.
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 USA and Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Finland, Russia and Slovakia.
Earlier on the same day, 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.
Honored hockey coach of Russia Vladimir Plyushchev criticized the tactics of canceling matches due to the detection of coronavirus in team members, noting that it could make the youth world ice hockey championship meaningless. Now the whole world is in difficult circumstances, and the organizers of the competition had to think through everything in advance, he said.
The World Youth Championship is held in Canada from December 26, 2021 to January 5, 2022. Matches are held in Edmonton and Red Deer. The Russian national team plays in Group B with teams from Sweden, USA, Slovakia and Switzerland.
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.
