Famous Russian hockey specialist, two-time Stanley Cup winner Sergei Nemchinov plans to enter the coaching staff of the Turkmenistan national ice hockey team. He came to such a decision by visiting Ashgabat. This was announced to Turkmenportal by the chairman of the Turkmenistan Ice Hockey Federation Jora Hudayberdiyev.

Sergey Nemchinov is a two-time world and European champion, the silver medalist of the 1998 Winter Olympics, as well as a two-time Stanley Cup winner in the US teams New York Rangers (1994) and New Jersey Devils (2000).

The 55-year-old specialist will help to the head coach of the Turkmeinstan team Bayram Allayarov, prepare for the 2020 IIHF World Championship Division III (Group A), which will be held from April 19 to April 26, 2020 in Luxembourg.

The rivals of the Turkmenistan team in Group A of the Division III will be the national teams of the DPRK, Turkey, Luxembourg, Taiwan and the UAE. According to the results of the tournament, the team that won the first place will get the right to play in the Division II (Group B) of the  2021 IIHF World Championship, and the team that will take the last place will go to 2021 IIHF World Championship Division III (Group B) .

During his visit to Ashgabat, Sergei Nemchinov from August 30 to September 7 conducted intensive training with the Turkmenistan national ice hockey team and has already drawn up a plan for preparing our hockey players for the 2020 IIHF World Championship in Luxembourg. In preparation for the world championship, the Turkmenistan Ice Hockey Federation plans to organize two foreign training camps for the national team.

In April of this year, Turkmen hockey players, making their debut in the 2019 IIHF World Championship Division III in Sofia (Bulgaria), took third place among six teams in group, achieving a historic result.

In 2017, the Turkmenistan national ice hockey team won a convincing victory in the Division II of the Asian Winter Games, which was held in the Japanese city of Sapporo. This ensured access to the first Division I of the next Asian Games, which will be held in 2021 in China. We also note the victory of the Turkmenistan team at last year's qualifying tournament in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which allowed our team to go to the 2019 IIHF World Championship Division III in Sofia for the first time.