Athletes from 10 countries gathered for the tournament in Ashgabat

April 15 in Ashgabat will start the international tournament on ice hockey with participation of club teams from 10 countries.

According to the Decree of President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, the tournament is held "in order to strengthen friendship and brotherhood, good-neighborliness between peoples, popularize physical culture and sports, actively promote the principles of a healthy lifestyle in society, widely attract the younger generation to sports, as well as to further enhance international sports prestige".

Turkmenistan will be represented at the tournament by eight-time national champion "Galkan", representing the sports club of the same name of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

At the preliminary stage of the competition hockey players "Galkan" will play in Group "A" with the teams "Ice Box" (Iran), "Oman Khanjars" (Oman), "Bahrain" (Bahrain) and "Phoenix" (Uzbekistan). Group "B" was formed by: "Volat" (Belarus), "Akmola" (Kazakhstan), "Dordoi" (Kyrgyz Republic), "Orkhis-Kazan" (Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation) and "Gumush Patenler SK" (Turkey).

The winners of the groups will play for the main prize in the final on April 20. The second-placed teams will find the bronze medalist of the tournament in a face-to-face match.

In Turkmenistan, known for its rich natural gas reserves and the Karakum Desert, which occupies most of the country's territory, the game of ice hockey is a fairly new phenomenon. Nevertheless, Ashgabat currently has three indoor ice arenas with four rinks. Another Ice Palace for winter sports, designed for almost 3,000 visitors, functions in the Avaza National Tourist Zone on the Caspian Sea coast.

The first National Olympic Ice Palace for 1,000 spectators was built in 2006, and two more arenas were built in 2011 and 2014. The largest of them, the Winter Sports Complex, where all matches of the international tournament will be held, can accommodate 10,000 spectators.

The first domestic hockey tournament for the Cup of the President of Turkmenistan was held in 2012, which became a turning point in the development of this sport in our country. In the same year, according to the Order of the Head of State, the winners of the Cup tournament were sent to one of the largest regions of the Russian Federation to undergo a training camp at the Children and Youth Sports School of the Ak Bars hockey club in Kazan.

Located in the center of the capital of Tatarstan, this sports base is considered to be one of the best European forges for professional athletes, and that is why many young hockey players who dream of becoming world hockey stars try to get here.

Turkmen athletes have already had an opportunity to train under the guidance of experienced mentors from Ak Bars Children's and Youth Sports School: coaches from Kazan prepared two of our teams for the Cup of the President of Turkmenistan. One of them - "Burgut" - became the winner of the honorable trophy.

The next year, the Cup of the President of Turkmenistan became an international event. In 2015, another national hockey tournament in honor of the Day of the State Flag of Turkmenistan appeared in the sports calendar of the country.

In the same year, Turkmenistan was accepted as an associate member of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), and in 2018 became a full member of the IOC-recognized international sports organization.

A year before this event, the hockey players of the national team of Turkmenistan won small gold medals at the 2017 second division tournament in the program of the VIII Asian Winter Games in Sapporo (Japan). The victory of our compatriots then became a real sensation, as hockey in the country was only taking its first steps, and many people did not believe that players from hot Turkmenistan could be worthy opponents. However, Bairam Allayarov's charges disproved all predictions: in Group "B" they convincingly defeated the teams from Malaysia - 9:2, Macau - 16:0 and Indonesia - 12:2, and in the final they confidently defeated the rivals from the Kyrgyz Republic - 7:3.

In 2018, Turkmen hockey players won the World Cup qualifying tournament in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the participation of teams from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the first attempt and won the right to debut in 2019 in the third division of the World Cup in Sofia.

At the first two World Championships in Bulgaria and Luxembourg, the Turkmenistanis won bronze medals in the third division. And last year at the World Cup in Cape Town (South Africa), our hockey team won silver medals in competition with teams from Luxembourg, Thailand, Chinese Taipei and South Africa.

The hockey players of Turkmenistan's junior national team have also achieved notable success over the past two years. In 2023, in competition with the national teams of Iran, Mongolia, UAE, Thailand and Uzbekistan, they won silver medals at the first Asian and Oceania Championship among players under 18 years old held in Ulaanbaatar. And this year, Guvanch Dzhepbarov and Maksat Ataev's wards achieved the same success in the third division of Group "B" of the World U18 Championship, which was held in Cape Town with the participation of teams from Hong Kong, Thailand, Turkmenistan and South Africa.

We hope that these successes of Turkmen hockey will be continued at the upcoming international tournament in Ashgabat.