Austria Hosts Ice Sledge Hockey Summer Camp

Austria held its first-ever Ice Sledge Hockey summer camp last week (11-17 July) in St. Poelten, Austria, welcoming guests from Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Italy in addition to native attendees.

Chief trainer Roman Henrik from the Czech Republic and goalie trainer Ruper Kanestrin from Italy instilled their training regimens at the camp, as athletes took to the ice for four hours per day and culminated the camp with an exhibition contest.

In the coming weeks, the Ice Sledge Hockey team in St. Poelten will begin weekly training on the ice, and at the beginning of August they will host an intensive three-day camp. Austria’s other team, based in Graz, will begin its training programme at the end of August, once an ice rink becomes available to them.

For more information on Austria’s up-and-coming Ice Sledge Hockey programme, visit http://www.sledgehockey.at/.

Ice Sledge Hockey was one of five sports athletes competed in at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games, and while Austria was not one of the eight delegations that fielded an Ice Sledge Hockey squad, it’s making progress toward being able to send a team in the future.

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