The second consecutive victory was won by the hockey players of the national team of Turkmenistan at the World Championship held in Cape Town in the third division of group «A», having beaten the team of Thailand in the third round - 6:3.

The opponents met for the first time in the world championship. Before the face-to-face match, the teams were located next to each other in the standings, having one victory and one defeat in their track record.

The Thais had an ambiguous start in the tournament. In the first round, they lost to the Taiwanese team with a crushing score of 2:11, and in the second they crushed the Luxembourg team - 10:2. Let us remind you that at the start, in a bitter struggle, the Turkmen team lost to the hosts of the World Cup - the South African team - 6:9, and then defeated the rivals from Luxembourg - 4:1.

Hockey players of Turkmenistan and Thailand began the game cautiously, paying great attention to the defense of the goal in the first 20 minutes. As a result, the teams went to the first break with zeros on the scoreboard.

The second period passed with a noticeable advantage of our team. At the 24th minute, Arslan Geldymyradov led the team of Turkmenistan ahead - 1:0, having realized the numerical majority. After 2 minutes, Ovezguly Esenov doubled the result. At the end of the 30th minute, Arslan Nuryyev, with the filing of Gurbanmyrat Tannyyev, scored another goal, and the rivals left for the second break with a score of 3:0 in favor of the national team of Turkmenistan.

As soon as the third period started, in the 42nd minute, Pavel Barkovskiy brought Novruz Bayramov to the striking position, and with a wrist throw, he increased our team's advantage to 4:0.

In the 48th minute, the Thais won back one goal, realizing a numerical majority. However, after 2 minutes, Baymyrat Baymyradov restored the difference in the score to four goals - 5:1.

It seemed that our hockey players would easily bring the match to victory. But it was not there. At the 54th and 57th minutes, Gian Mikael Isaksson doubled and reduced the gap to two goals - 3:5.

1 minute and 55 seconds before the final siren, in the hope of saving the game, the Thais decide on a desperate step - they change the goalkeeper to the sixth field player. But in vain. At the last minute of the meeting, Baymyrat Baymyradov took possession of the puck in a foreign zone and, 28 seconds before the end of the match, rolled it into the opponent's empty net, setting the final score - 6:3.

After the game, in honor of the second consecutive victory of our hockey players, the anthem of Turkmenistan was played under the arches of the «Grandwest» Arena of the Ice Station, which can accommodate 2800 spectators, and the expert jury named the best players of the match. These were: defender Ken Edwin Kindborn in the national team of Thailand, and forward Baymyrat Baymyradov, the author of the double, in the team of Turkmenistan.

The next day, at the World Championships in Cape Town, two more matches took place, in which the Taiwanese team defeated Luxembourg - 10:0, and the South African team lost to Thailand - 2:5.

In this way, before the last round, the national team of Turkmenistan with 6 points takes the second place, losing 3 points to the team of Taiwan. The hockey players of Thailand are also in the third position with 6 points, but they have already completed their performance in the tournament. The following places are taken by the teams of South Africa and Luxembourg, which respectively have 3 and 0 points.

The final game day will play: South Africa - Luxembourg and Turkmenistan - Taiwan. In the duel of the last rivals, the fate of the first place will be decided. Remind that the winner of the third division of group «A» will receive a promotion in the class - they will move to the stronger second division of group «B».