MOSCOW, December 24. / TASS /. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) on Friday announced its decision to cancel the World Junior Girls Hockey Championship next year in Sweden due to the current global spread of the novel coronavirus, according to the IIHF statement .

“Following a recommendation from the IIHF Medical Committee due to recent developments in the global epidemiological situation of COVID-19 and the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, the IIHF Council has decided to cancel all tournaments of the IIHF which were due to start in January 2022, ”the IIHF statement reads.

Among the tournaments canceled early next year is the “2022 IIHF U18 Women’s Ice Hockey World Championship”, which was scheduled for January 8-15 in Linkoping and Mjolby, Sweden.

“Due to the league’s commitments in Sweden on possible postponement dates, it has been determined that it would not be possible to relocate the women’s U18s at a later date,” the statement added.

Commenting on today’s decision, IIHF President Luc Tardif said: “It is the consensus of the IIHF Medical Committee that organizers would not have the capacity to handle a virus outbreak. , especially with the rapid transfer of the Omicron variant that we’ve seen in the NHL and other leagues. “

The IIHFU18 Women’s World Championships have been held annually since the first edition in January 2008 (in Calgary and Alberta in Canada). The Russian team is the double bronze medalist of the championships (in 2015 and 2020).

Anders Larsson, President of the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the 2022 IIHF Women’s U18 Ice Hockey World Championship said: “The Swedish Ice Hockey Association, together with the host cities Link · ping and Mjolby and the Ostergotland Ice Hockey Association are looking forward to hosting the championship at home. “

“The U18 Women’s World Championship is an important part of strengthening and building ice hockey on the girls’ and women’s side, but that said, we have great respect and understanding for the situation-based decision of pandemic in the world, “he added. .

COVID-19[female[feminine

At the end of December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) of the previously unknown pneumonia epidemic in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the new coronavirus – named COVID-19 by the WHO – have been reported around the world, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, more than 278,862,360 people have been infected worldwide and more than 5,404,230 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, more than 249,484,045 people have recovered from the disease across the world.