Twenty
two players who had appeared in the World Para Hockey Championship this
May will come to Zlín to compete in the 9th LAPP Cup Tournament that is
to take place from Thursday September 5 to Saturday September 7. Names
of those nominated players are truly respectable:
MJOSA PIKES (Norway)
Norwegian coach Espen Hedge picked up the gauntlet by his nomination. A
total of nine Mjosa players took place in the latest World Championship.
The team is filled with so many great players, that two other skilled
forwards even reinforced the team Malmö. The only women in sledge
hockey, Lena Shroder, will represent Norway in this tournament, as well.
SOUTH TYROL EAGLES (Italy)
The Italians would like to win the gold medal at least, which escaped
from them already for the sixth time in history, last year with the home
team of Zlín, for that matter. The usually strong Italian team will
arrive without their captain Sandro Kalegaris. He however will be fully
substituted by the Russian sniper Dmitry Lisov. There are six
participants from the World Championship in the Italian roster.
FIFH MALMÖ (Sweden)
After having ended as the last ones in the late tournament, the Swedes
also reinforced their roster. Except for three World Championship
participants, goalie Nilsson and defenders Lundgren and Ingvarsson, also
a fast German forward Bernhard Hering will wear the Malmö team jersey,
just as the two above mentioned Norwegian forwards Audun Bakke and
Magnus Bogle, both also from the World Championship.
SHK LAPP ZLÍN (Czech Republic)
Home team Zlín relies on their base players who will get the occasion to
fully compare their skills with the international sledge hockey. There
are no special reinforcements reported, except for usual defense
supplement with Jan Zapletal, originating in Zlin. Also Pavel Julina,
with his 21st season in defense will be there, just as Zdeněk Hábl, the
third most productive player and the best Czech player as for pointage
in the latest World Championship. He is also the only Czech participant
of the May‘s World Championship.
Two Slovakian forwards Martin Joppa and Marian Ligda will create a reliable pair of forwards. „It
does not matter we lack reinforcements like last years. We want to
grant our players enough space to acquire priceless experience and
become our most reliable players in the future. We will see it on the
ice rink how some of them cope up with it“, says Tomáš Sedláček, the SHK LAPP Zlín coach.
VIENNA WARRIORS (Austria)
Presumably least powerful team comes from Vienna. However one nominated
name stands out. Italian Gabriele Lanza, also the World Championship
participant, could be the main forward power thereof. He had scored one
of the goals in the last year’s LAPP Cup finals, back then still as a
part of the team Tirol Eagles. Their goalkeeping post will be
represented by the Czech goalie Petr Boček.