The «Galkan» hockey players emerged victorious in the first round of the Turkmenistan Championship, the medals of which were contested by 6 teams.
The games took place on the ice arena of the winter sports centre «Galkan» of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Turkmenistan, which was inaugurated in 2014.
As the chairman of the Hockey Federation of Turkmenistan, Jora Hudayberdiyev, told to the «GA» correspondent, following the results of the first half of the national championship, the team of the sports club of the Ministry of Internal Affairs won five victories in five matches and confidently leads the championship with 15 points.
The team «Shir» of the Ministry of Trade and Foreign Economic Relations is 3 points behind the leader, having suffered its only defeat from «Galkan» - 4:10.
The «Oguzhan» team of the State Concern «Turkmengas» takes third position with 9 points.
The teams «Nesil» of the Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, «Merdana» of the Border Institute of Turkmenistan and «Vatanchy» of the Military Institute of the Ministry of Defense, located at the bottom of the tournament table, also participate in the championship of Turkmenistan.
«Galkan» forward Begench Dovletmyradov is the leader in the dispute of scorers, with 9 goals to his name.
At the end of the first round, there was a break in the championship caused by the preparation of the national and junior (under 18) teams of Turkmenistan for the upcoming world championships.
The national team will take part in the World Championship of the third division of Group «A», which will be held from the 10th to 16th of March in Bishkek. Teams from the Kyrgyz Republic, Luxembourg, Mexico, Thailand, Turkmenistan and South Africa will compete for the only place in the second division of Group «B».
In preparation for these important competitions, our hockey players, under the leadership of the national team's head coach Bayram Allayarov and his assistant Ilyas Veliyev, will hold a final training camp at the Olympic Training Centre «Raubichi» (Belarus) from the 21st of February to 6th of March, during which they will play several tests matches.
And in the coming month, the junior team will face a serious test at the World Championship of the third division of Group «B», which will take place on the 4th to 7th of March in Cape Town with the participation of teams from Hong Kong, Thailand, Turkmenistan and South Africa.
For Turkmen juniors, this will be their debut at competitions of this rank, for which our hockey players are preparing under the leadership of Guvanch Jeparov and Maksat Atayev.
Last year, the junior team of Turkmenistan won silver medals at the first Asian and Oceanian Championship among players under 18 years of age, held in Ulaanbaatar, which was also attended by teams from Uzbekistan, Mongolia, the UAE, Thailand and Iran.
