Its been confirmed that Great Britain Women will be joined by Iceland for October’s Olympic Pre-Qualification Round 2 in Gangneung in October.
Slovenia and hosts Korea are GB’s other opponents for the four-team tournament from Thursday 7th to Sunday 10th October 2021.
The round 1 tournament in Reykjavik – involving Iceland, Hong Kong, Bulgaria and Lithuania – was due to take place later this month, but has been cancelled because of the covid-19 pandemic.
Bulgaria withdrew from the tournament while other teams addressed concerns about the deteriorating covid-19 situation in Iceland and quarantine rules for the participants that would not make it possible for them to take part in the event.
The IIHF has decided that Iceland – as the top-seeded team from the first round – will now be go through as the qualifier in Group F in Korea.
Qualification for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing will now start with three round 2 groups in Korea, Italy and Poland.
The tournament winners of this round will advance to the Final Olympic Qualification in November, with groups taking place in Chomutov (Czech Republic), Fussen (Germany) and Lulea (Sweden).
The three group winners will then go forward to the Olympics alongside the top six IIHF ranked teams; USA, Canada, Finland, Russia, Switzerland and Japan along with hosts China.
Click here for the overview on ice hockey at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.