Kuwait City, Kuwait, July 27, 2023: The Olympic Council of Asia in collaboration with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) will hold an Under-16 Asian Ice Hockey Youth Camp in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from July 31 to August 7.
The first ever OCA/IIHF Asian Ice Hockey Youth Camp has received plenty of interest with 27 National Olympic Committees across Asia, including hosts Uzbekistan, sending athletes, coaches and game officials for the week-long residential camp.
The OCA has held Asian Youth Development Camps in other disciplines previously, but this is the first time a youth camp for a winter sport is being held.
The last time the OCA held a similar training camp was the Asian Diving Youth Camp in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in August 2022.
“We decided to have a winter sport this time as we want to develop winter sports, and in particular ice hockey, in Asia. We want NOC’s in the region to promote winter sports with an eye on the Winter Youth Olympic Games,” said Tony Tarraf, OCA Head of Athletes Development Department and Special Projects.
A total of nine IIHF instructors led by IIHF Sport Development Manager Harald Springfield will oversee the ice hockey specific programme.
A total of 126 athletes, game officials and coaches from the 27 NOCs will take part in the residential camp.
The NOCs who have registered for the programme are Afghanistan, Bahrain, Chinese-Taipei, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Oman, Pakistan, People’s Republic of China, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.