World Para Ice Hockey Championships B-Pool
17-22 September

B-Pool Worlds to return to Ostersund

Top three finishers will advance to Paralympic Qualification Tournament with top two finishers also promoted to the A-Pool World Championships 30 Jul 2021
Imagen
a group of Para ice hockey players celebrate a goal
Japan will make a return to Sweden following its participation at the Winter Paralympics Qualification Tournament in Ostersund in 2017
ⒸKarl Nilsson
By World Para Ice Hockey

The World Para Ice Hockey Championships B-Pool will return to Ostersund, Sweden from 17-22 September, with six participating teams attempting to earn themselves a spot at the Paralympic Qualification Tournament for the Beijing 2022 Games.

The top three finishers from Ostersund will advance to the Winter Paralympics Qualification Tournament later this year where they will meet Norway, Italy and Slovakia. The top two finishers will also be promoted to the A-Pool for the 2022-23 season.

Host nation Sweden, which has three B-Pool silver medals to its name, will be the top seed in the tournament, and Vancouver 2010 Paralympic silver medallists Japan will be the second seed. They will be followed by No. 3 China, which finished runner-up at the last World Championships B-Pool, and No. 4 Germany, the 2013 B-Pool winners. No. 5 Poland and No. 6 Finland will round out the participants.

“Ostersund has become a city truly dedicated to hosting and promoting Para ice hockey and winter sport events over the years, and we are excited to be returning there once again,” said World Para Ice Hockey Manager Michelle Laflamme. “Following a successful World Championships A-Pool in Ostrava, we are excited to pass the torch to Ostersund now, where six additional teams will have the opportunity to move one step closer to securing a spot at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.”

The round-robin style tournament will take place at Ostersund Arena, which holds up to 2,700 spectators. With a population of about 60,000, Ostersund is known to be a winter sports hub, and hosted the World Para Ice Hockey World Championships B-Pool in 2015 and the European Championships in 2016. It has also hosted the 2019 IBU Biathlon World Championships, and other major international winter events, including cross-country skiing World Cups and World Junior Curling Championships. 

“I am incredibly looking forward to Ostersund hosting these World Para Ice Hockey Championships,” said Beatrice Olsson, chair of the Local Organising Committee (LOC). “The LOC, together with the volunteers and the whole town, will do our very best to make the teams feel welcome and able to perform at their best. There will be exciting competition days where a lot is at stake.”

The schedule for the event will consist of the following matchups (kick-off times are shown on Central European Time, CET): 

17 September
10:00 — Poland vs. China
13:30 — Germany vs. Japan
17:00 — Finland vs. Sweden

18 September
10:00 — Japan vs. Poland
13:30 — China vs. Finland
17:00 — Sweden vs. Germany

19 September
10:00 — Japan vs. China
13:30 — Finland vs. Germany
17:00 — Sweden vs. Poland

21 September
10:00 — Germany vs. Poland
13:30 —  Japan vs. Finland
17:00 — China vs. Sweden

22 September
10:00 — Poland vs. Finland
13:30 — China vs. Germany
17:00 — Sweden vs. Japan

This will be the eighth edition of the World Para Ice Hockey Championships B-Pool. The last World Championships B-Pool took place in 2019 in Berlin, Germany, where the RPC won gold, Slovakia took silver and China claimed bronze.