The hosts of the future world championships were announced on Friday: Lithuania will not be without high-level ice hockey either - Vilnius will host the world ice hockey IIA division U-20 championship in January next year.
At the Congress of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), when deciding on the hosts of the World Championship, the request of the association "Hockey Lietuva" to organize the U-20 championships in our country was granted. The IIA division tournament will be held next January in Vilnius.
However, there was certainly no shortage of intrigue when voting for the host of the championship. After Lithuania's candidacy triumphed in the initial vote, representatives of Great Britain filed a protest due to a few lost votes, and a few hours later a re-voting had to be held. During that time, everything was decided by a single vote - the Lithuanians beat the British candidacy by just one point (13-12), but that was enough for the primaries to be finally entrusted to Lithuania.
The national teams of Great Britain, Japan, Romania, Serbia and Spain will arrive in the capital of Lithuania on January 6-12 next year. All of them will fight with the hosts for the only ticket to the IB division.
After the announcement of the hosts of the other championships, it became clear that the Lithuanians will not have to travel far next year. The Lithuanian national team, which was eliminated from the IA division last year, will go to Poland, the city of Katowice, where the IB division championship will be held. There, the Lithuanian national team, trying to return to a higher division, will face the hosts Poland, Estonian, Japanese, Serbian and Ukrainian national teams.
This championship will take place from April 26 to May 2 in the historic Spodek Arena. The elite division tournament was held here back in 1976, and the IA division tournament was held in 8500 in the arena, which can accommodate 2016 fans in hockey matches.
Meanwhile, the country's U-18 national team will go to Tallinn. A tournament of this age group will once again be held in the capital of Estonia, where, in addition to Lithuania and Estonia, the IIA division will also fight against the youth national teams of Romania, South Korea, Serbia and Great Britain. These championships will be held on March 22-28.
As it was announced earlier, the Lithuanian women's ice hockey team will go to Sofia, Bulgaria for the debut championship. There, the Lithuanians, without hosts, will also be challenged by the national teams of Romania, Belgium, the Republic of South Africa and Hong Kong. The historic national ice hockey championship will be held again this year, on December 4-12.
