The road to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing will begin in Nottingham after the qualifiers and their venues were announced.
Great Britain will play their first qualifiers at the Motorpoint Arena from Thursday 6th to Sunday 9th February next year, where they play Hungary, Estonia and another team to come from the previous qualifying round.
The winners will progress to the final qualifying group and from there, possibly to the Winter Olympics being staged in China in three years time.
It caps off a great week for ice hockey in the UK after GB secured their top flight status in the World Championships for a second year.
And, as Ice Hockey UK General Secretary Andy French stated, it’s another feather in the cap for events in this country.
Nottingham hosting Olympic qualifiers in the last good news for British ice hockey this week after the World Championship effort (PHOTO: Dean Woolley)
“As top seeds in the four-team group we had the first-refusal and we are excited that the UK will be hosting Olympic qualifying,” he said.
“We have a great record with the IIHF in putting on major tournaments and have regularly hosted women’s and junior tournaments plus, of course, held the men’s World Championship Division I Group B event in Belfast a couple of years ago.”
Ice Hockey UK chairman, Richard Grieveson added: “This is something very special for us and an offer we were delighted to accept the invitation.
“Following the success of our men’s team in Slovakia over the past two weeks, we feel it is important to build on that momentum.
“We believe Nottingham is a great venue for this tournament and we are looking forward to welcoming thousands of ice hockey supporters to the UK in February.”
Anon
24th May 2019 at 7:45 pm
Good new hopefully but I just hope the welcome includes welcoming the GBSC (supporters club) drums to drum up some atmosphere that was sadly lacking at the Torpedo warm up match in Nottingham and that were enjoyed in Slovakia. (I am not speaking for them).
Anon
24th May 2019 at 7:46 pm
Good news hopefully but I just hope the welcome includes welcoming the GBSC (supporters club) drums to drum up some atmosphere that was sadly lacking at the Torpedo warm up match in Nottingham and that were enjoyed in Slovakia. (I am not speaking for them).
Bob Gibson
25th May 2019 at 5:39 am
I hope my Scouting Reports + Information that I Mailed from my location in Swarthmore PA in the United States to Ice Hockey UK in the UK greatly help the UK Men’s Ice Hockey Team Qualify to be in the Winter Olympics !!!