Idyllic Lausanne beckons as the home of the Olympic movement in Switzerland plays host to the men’s EuroHockey U21 Championship II-B.
The competition runs on a same level as II-A in Walcz with the winner of the competition in line to potentially move up to the top level for the next U21 season.
It features Switzerland, Scotland, Wales, Czechia and Finland in a five-team round-robin group with each team playing each other between now and Saturday.
For the hosts, Loris Grandchamp is Swiss hockey’s golden boy of the moment. His performances have seen him earn a transfer to Orée in the Belgian leagues having shone for White Star last term.
He also scored the winning goal for the Swiss indoor side as they made history when beating Germany in the EuroHockey Indoor Championships in Leuven.
This will be his second U21 campaign along with Jens Flück – captain two years ago in Helsinki – Yannick Hug, Léonard Kraxner, Matthias Mohrhauer and Max Fischbach.
They won gold in Helsinki in 2022 in the third tier. That came after a 10-year break from the Under-21 stage with their previous appearance in the second tier coming in 2012 in Cernusco when they ended in sixth place.
For Finland, most of the panel hail from three main clubs – five from Warriors, five from Vantaa and four from HC Klippari.
They also have a couple of German-based players with Emil Könönen plying his trade with TSV Mannheim while Juhani Floeter lines out with SAFO Frankfurt.
This will be just their second U21 championship; they hosted the third tier in 2022 where they finished in fourth place.
Wales feature Ben Wall who will be playing in his third successive Under-21 championship. He won gold in Vilnius in the third tier in 2019 in a side that also featured Welsh star Jacob Draper and then played in the second tier, winning bronze in Plzen Litice in 2022.
He has since gone on to make as senior international debut in the past month. Along with Owen Sutton, Ewan Bagwell, Euan Dyer and John Bennett, they provide the prior experience to their side.
Czechia finished in sixth place in the second tier two years ago and so will be looking for their returning players to bring them on.
Josef Toms is a vital cog on their machine. He has a combined 30 international caps for the seniors across indoor and outdoor matches and he was joined in the indoor Euros in Leuven earlier this year by Kryštof Šesták.
Jan Trejbal has been impressing on the Irish scene with Railway Union this season. Jalub Homolka, Martin Plachý and Jakub Klaban have all played senior international fixtures, too.
Scotland’s line-up is almost an entirely new one. Ali Douglas did play in the top division in Ghent in 2022 and he subsequently made his senior debut last summer in Championship II in Dublin.
He is also part of the Great Britain pathway, lining out in the Sultan of Johor Cup in Malaysia last October.
Beyond him, Pete Caughey and captain Jamie Croll were involved two years ago with the latter only enjoying a shortened tournament, not playing in the closing three games.
Day one begins with Czechia facing Finland and Wales meeting the Swiss.
