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It wasn’t the nation’s first style of worldwide competitors: again in 2019, earlier than the pandemic disrupted the decrease ranges of IIHF play, Kyrgyzstan contested a Division III qualification event in Abu Dhabi and carried out strongly on the ice solely to be scuppered by participant eligibility points. Then, in November 2019 the Kyrgyz group made a profitable debut in Olympic Qualification, powering via the primary group part in Luxembourg earlier than bowing out in spherical two in Romania a month later.
This time, although, was the primary World Championship event to be performed in Bishkek and, after greater than two years with out aggressive motion, no person fairly knew what to anticipate from the host nation. Behind the bench, issues had modified. Mikhail Chekanov, beforehand head coach of Russia’s ladies on the Sochi Olympics, took over from Pavel Sazonov. The roster additionally had new faces, with a clutch of 17-year-olds coming right into a group that has a median age of simply 22.5 years. Nonetheless, with two years of pandemic-enforced inactivity, Chekanov admitted earlier than the event that he wouldn’t actually know the state of his group’s preparations till it performed its first recreation.
In that first recreation it rapidly grew to become clear that the house group was a way forward of the competitors. The opener noticed Kyrgyzstan defeat Iran 13-1 – and that proved to be the tightest verdict for Chekanov’s group. Subsequent encounters noticed crushing victories over Malaysia (22-1), Singapore (15-0) and Kuwait (14-0). The Philippines, who had been speculated to be the sixth group within the competitors, needed to pull out after two years with out a likelihood to get on the ice because of Covid-19 restrictions again house.
Given these scorelines, it’s no shock that the person scoring charts had been dominated by Kyrgyzstan’s gamers. Vladimir Nosov topped the scoring with 20 (9+11), forward of Mikhail Chuvalov and Vladimir Tonkikh. All three realized their hockey exterior of Kyrgyzstan, beginning their careers in Russia or Kazakhstan, and all three symbolize the Ala-Too Dordoi membership within the six-team Kyrgyz championship.
There’s home-grown expertise as nicely. Islambek Abdyraev, a Bishkek native, tied Tonkikh on 14 factors. The 21-year-old wore the ‘A’ on this event and is presently enjoying in Finland’s third tier with HAKI. Regardless of enjoying simply half the group’s video games this season, the Kyrgyz teenager is ninth in scoring on that group.
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