The U-20 World Ice Hockey Junior Championship in Canada has been canceled in the middle of the tournament due to the increasing corona numbers.

In view of the widespread use of the Omikron variant, the step was necessary to ensure “the health and safety of all participants”, the world association IIHF announced.

"The general pandemic situation, the strict Covid protocol and above all the protection of the health of all players and those involved left no alternative," said Franz Reindl, President of the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB) and member of the IIHF Council: "I do the infinitely sorry for our team.

I hope everyone comes home safe. "

The decision was made "after a player of the Russian U-20 national team was found to be positive," said the DEB.

“This would have resulted in the third game cancellation during the tournament.

As a result, the safety and health of all participants is no longer guaranteed, as is the athletic integrity. "

DEB sports director Christian Künast also welcomed the decision: “That is the most sensible solution. The top priority has to be that all players stay healthy, ”he said in an interview with MagentaSport:“ It was right that we tried it. ”The team and everyone involved were nevertheless“ extremely disappointed. It was a slap in the face for the team, ”he said. In addition to the players who can no longer take part in a U-20 World Cup due to age reasons, this also applies to national coaches. “It just hurts him. All the work of a year is gone now, ”said Künast.

Both Russia and the Czech Republic had to quarantine the defending champions USA team for 24 hours on Wednesday, as before, after a corona case and were unable to play their group game.

The three opponents were initially awarded a 1-0 victory.

"We started this tournament with full confidence in the Covid-19 protocols," said IIHF President Luc Tardif in a statement: "The continued spread and the Omikron variant forced us to write the protocols almost immediately after arrival adapt.

Unfortunately that wasn't enough.

Now we have to take the time and focus on getting all players and team members home safely. "

The tournament in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta, was supposed to run through January 5th.

The German team started the tournament with a 1: 3 against Finland and a 2: 1 after extra time against the Czech Republic.

The U-20 World Cup, which is particularly popular in Canada and the USA, had started even though the world association IIHF had canceled all of the youth tournaments planned for January.

This also affected the U-18 World Cup for women in Sweden, in which Germany would also have participated.