Opinions & Interviews

Christmas ice hockey tournament to demonstrate Belarus’ viability as world championship venue

MINSK, 3 January (BelTA) – The forthcoming Christmas Amateur Ice Hockey Tournament for the Prize of the Belarus President is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate Belarus as the host country of the IIHF 2014 World Championship. The opinion was voiced by Mr Alexander Khromylev, Aide to the Chairman of the Presidential Sports Club, at a press conference on 3 January, BelTA has learned.

The Christmas Amateur Ice Hockey Tournament is scheduled to take place in Minsk on 4-7 January.

Alexander Khromylev remarked: “Last year we said that the Christmas Tournament represents a perfect opportunity to demonstrate our country as well as Minsk in anticipation of the 2014 world ice hockey championship. Symbols of the world championship are advertized in virtually all the design elements of the tournament and souvenirs. We should not miss the opportunity to advertise the forthcoming global forum. It is possible that representatives of Finland and Sweden, where the next championship will take place, will be able to learn something. As always the organizers have prepared souvenir products for the Christmas Tournament in advance as well as prizes for the best players so the guests will be able to assess our advantages and disadvantages in comparison with organizers of major international competitions”.

Mr Igor Karpenko, Deputy Chairman of the Minsk City Executive Committee, also mentioned the forthcoming world championship. “It is a great honor for Minsk to host the Christmas Ice Hockey Tournament. We consider it an important sport event and as a cultural event, something relevant for tourism. We are ready to offer a complex of events, including for those, who have come to Minsk to celebrate the New Year and have decided to stay for a while. We invite them to visit the tournament, too. Besides, we offer sightseeing tours to guests and opportunities to visit cultural and historical places of interest. We now offer a new tourist route with a double-decker along Minsk streets that will get one familiar with our city”.

“It is very important that the tournament takes places in the period of school vacations. It means that school students will be able to get familiar with the best manifestations of sports. And we certainly look at the tournament from the point of view of preparations for the ice hockey championship that will take place in Minsk in 2014. It involves a large spectrum of organizational aspects that will help us uncover shortcomings. It will point out what we should pay attention to while preparing for the global forum. In the organizing committee of the world championship we analyze it very thoroughly for the sake of introducing positive aspects into preparations for the world championship. We have scheduled several near-future events with the Ice Hockey Federation of Belarus to discuss how the tournament went and what we should do for the sake of the world championship,” said Igor Karpenko.

The Christmas Amateur Ice Hockey Tournament will take place in the Sports Palace, the Ice Palace and Minsk Arena in the Belarusian capital city. The tournament will gather ice hockey amateur teams from Austria, Germany, Canada, Russia, Slovakia, Czechia, Switzerland, and Belarus.

The Belarus president team won the Christmas Tournament in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2012. The Russian team won the tournament twice in 2007 and 2011 by beating the Belarusian team in the finals.

The tournament has been held under the aegis of the national association Presidential Sports Club since 2006. Among the organizers are the Belarusian Sports and Tourism Ministry, the Ice Hockey Federation of Belarus, and the Minsk City Executive Committee. The Belarusian State Teleradiocompany is an information partner of the tournament.

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