Polish Ice Hockey Association sets bonus for Beijing 2022 qualification

WARSAW, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The Polish Ice Hockey Association has announced a big bonus as an incentive for the national team if they can advance to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

The 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France was the last Olympics the team qualified for. However, the team can still dream about Beijing after they surprisingly won the Olympic qualification's preliminary phase, beating the Netherlands, the Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. In August, the side coached by Robert Kalaber will face Belarus, Slovakia, and Austria in Bratislava for the only ticket to the Olympic tournament.

"For promotion to the Olympic Games, we set a high bonus, amounting to 500,000 zloty (126,000 U.S. dollars). For each match won, each player will receive an additional 2,000 zloty. I think the association meets the expectations of the players in difficult times,"f the Polish Ice Hockey Association president Miroslaw Minkina said in an interview with Polish media on Tuesday.

Poland will play in two friendly tournaments at home and in Slovenia to prepare for the last stage of the Olympic qualifications. "We have around ten friendly matches on our schedule. No other national team will play so many matches before such an important tournament," Minkina concluded.

The Poles will start their preparations on April 18. In the "Three Seas Tournament," they will play against Lithuania, Estonia, Croatia, and the Latvia U-23 team. In May, Poland will take part in the "Beat COVID-19" tournament in Slovenia. The hosts, Austria, France, South Korea, and Romania will all feature.