MOSCOW, May 15. Merited coach of the USSR in figure skating Tatyana Tarasova spoke about World Ice Hockey Championship, which takes place in Finland from May 13 to May 29. Teams of Russia and Belarus miss the tournament due to the sanctions of the International Ice Hockey Federation. The place of the Russian team was taken by the French team, the Belarusians were replaced by the Austrians.
"What kind of hockey can there be without Russia? There are only a dozen countries in the world that play this sport. The Russian team is the world leader. The World Championship without the Russian team is some kind of under-hockey", Sport24 quotes Tarasova.
After the first matches of the tournament, group A was headed by the Danish team, which defeated Kazakhstan. In group B, the first place is occupied by the Finnish team, which won two victories at the start of the World Cup.