Bronze medals were won by the hockey players of the national team of Turkmenistan at the world championship in the third division of group A, which ended in Luxembourg.
The awards of the championship, held in the city of Kokelscheuer, were contested in a one-round tournament by five teams - the United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg, Taiwan, Turkey and Turkmenistan.
As already reported, the UAE team won the first place in the group and thus won the right to play in Group B of the second division of the World Championship next year, for which several Russian and Belarusian hockey players played under contract in the national championship of this countries.
The fate of the silver and bronze medals of the tournament was decided on the final game day.
The teams of Turkmenistan and Turkey were the first to enter the ice rink. In the first period, Turkish hockey players opened the scoring. However, in the second, Baimurad Baimuradov restored the balance - 1:1. The teams left for the second break already with the score 5:2 in favor of the Turkish national team. The final 20-minute passed with the advantage of Bayram Allayarov's wards, who reduced the gap to a minimum - 4:5, but still could not escape defeat. As a result, having scored 9 points, the Turkish team remained on the second line of the standings.
The fate of the third place, which was claimed by Turkmenistan and Luxembourg, was now decided in the final match between the hosts of the site, the Luxembourgers, and the Taiwanese team, unsuccessfully performing at the 2022 World Cup. The Luxembourg national team, in order to become a bronze medalist, it was enough not to lose. In the event of a victory for the Taiwanese, Turkmenistan remained in third place.
The first period did not bring success to any of the teams – 1:1. After the second Taiwan was ahead - 3:1. 6 seconds before the end of the third period, the Luxembourgers reduced the gap to a minimum - 3:4. In the remaining time, they changed the goalkeeper to the sixth field player and missed the puck into an empty net. As a result, Taiwan won - 5:3 and thus provided the team of Turkmenistan with bronze.
At the awards ceremony, Vice-President of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Aivaz Omorkanov presented bronze medals to the hockey players of Turkmenistan, and a memorable trophy for the 3rd place in the third division of the 2022 World Cup to the team captain Akhmet Gurbanov.
Three years ago, making their debut at the World Championship in Sofia (Bulgaria), Turkmen hockey players also took third place in the third division among 6 teams representing Europe, Asia and Africa. The team was led to this achievement by the head coach Bayram Allayarov, under whose leadership the national team of Turkmenistan won small gold medals in the second division tournament in the program of the VIII Asian Winter Games in Sapporo (Japan) in 2017, and won in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in 2018 Qualifying tournament for the World Cup with the participation of four teams.
