World Para Ice Hockey Federation announced that the next B-Pool Championship will take place from 6-11 October in Astana, Kazakhstan

The event will be hosted by the National Paralympic Committee of Kazakhstan at Terlan Arena. The top two finishers of the tournament will be promoted to the 2024 A-Pool. Slovakia, Sweden, Japan, Finland, Great Britain have already confirmed their participation in the tournament, which will be held in a round-robin system.

This will be the ninth edition of the B-Pool event and the third time it is being hosted in Asia. At the last edition of the event in 2021, China went undefeated to win gold, Germany took silver and Sweden claimed bronze medals

It should be noted that Kazakhstan competes in the event for the second time after finishing second at the World Championships C-Pool last season

Kazakhstan started their para ice hockey program only five years ago. Since then, it has attracted the attention of local political figures, sponsors and journalists in the country to build a national team. The tournament will be the first major international para ice hockey sports event in Kazakhstan

And what about the host city of the tournament? Astana is the capital of Kazakhstan and the nation’s second largest city with more than one million residents. It is home to several professional ice hockey teams, including the Barys Astana, a founding member of the KHL

The schedule of matches has already been published on the social networks of the tournament