The Turkmen hockey players secured their second victory at the ongoing U18 World Championship Division III, Group B, in Bangkok, Thailand, by defeating the Republic of South Africa team 18:7.

In their first match, as previously reported, our compatriots confidently defeated the Luxembourg team 8:2 (1:0, 3:2, 4:0). Then they lost to the Thai juniors 3:4 (1:0, 0:3, 2:1), despite having won against them decisively last year 7:2. In the third round, they lost to their peers from Uzbekistan 2:8 (2:4, 0:3, 0:1).

The Turkmen hockey players had already faced the South African team last year at the Junior World Championship in Cape Town. At that time, success was on the side of our team, winning 6:2.

This time, the match also went with a significant advantage for the Turkmen juniors, who consistently led throughout the game. Their peers from South Africa tried to offer worthy resistance only in the first two periods, each of which ended with a two-goal advantage for the Turkmen team.

Trailing by four goals after two periods (4:8), the South African hockey players in the final 20-minute period could not withstand the attacking pressure from the Turkmen team and conceded another 10 goals, scoring three in return.

The most effective players in our team were Sultanhamit Vahitov from the "Galkan" club and Iskenderhan Durdyev from the "Shir" club. The first scored a five-goal hat-trick, and the second scored four goals. Meretgeldi Kakayev made a hat-trick. Aga Annamyradov and Dayanch Batyrov each scored two goals. Shokhrat Begliev and Serdarmyrat Yollyev each scored once.

After the game, the expert jury named the best players of the match: Duwan van der Merwe from South Africa, who scored two goals, and forward Iskenderhan Durdyev from the Turkmenistan team.

In the final round, the Turkmen hockey players will face their peers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, who in the second round won against the South African team 4:3 (0:1, 3:1, 1:1), in the third round defeated the Luxembourg team in a shootout 5:4 (0:1, 3:1, 1:2, overtime – 0:0, shootout – 1:0), and in the fourth round lost to Uzbekistan 3:11 (1:2, 1:4, 1:5).

In another match of the fourth round, the Thai national team crushed the Luxembourg team 10:0 (5:0, 2:0, 3:0).

Before the last round, the Turkmenistan team ranks third with six points, ahead of Bosnia and Herzegovina by one point. The Uzbekistan and Thailand teams lead the tournament with 12 points each and will compete for the top spot and a promotion to Division III, Group A.

Recall that the Turkmen hockey players are participating in the Junior World Championship for the second time, having prepared under the guidance of Meylis Kulyev and his assistants, Maksat Atayev and Azatgeldi Byashimov.

Last year, at the U18 World Championship in Cape Town, South Africa, the Turkmen junior team, led by Guvanch Jepbarov and Maksat Atayev, took second place in Division III, Group B, among four teams, conceding the first spot to Hong Kong's hockey players, who secured a promotion to Group A.