OREANDA-NEWS. The hockey world championship among youth national teams, in which players are not older than 20 years old, will be held in the Czech cities of Ostrava and Trinec from December 26 till January 5.

The first group includes the teams of Czech Republic, Canada, Germany, Russia and USA. The second one includes Finland, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland.

The quarterfinal stage of the championship will start on January 2. Four teams from each group will get into it.

The current world champion is the Finnish youth team. Together with it, Russian and Canadian hockey players are considered to be favourites of the tournament.