Walcz in Poland once again welcomes top action with the men’s EuroHockey U21 Championship II-A following hot on the heels of the 5s festival last week.
The tournament features six teams playing in a straight round-robin format with each hoping for first place and potential promotion to the top level for the next edition. It is one two second tier events of equal standing starting on Monday, July 15 with the other in Lausanne, Switzerland.
It will be a special occasion for Luxembourg as they play in their first ever event at Under-21 level. They do so with 13 of the players who lined out with the Under-18 side last year in Wales with Maximilien Clarinval reprising his role as captain. He also scored their historic first goal at Under-18 international level.
Austria (pictured below) warmed up for the competition with victories over Czechia (2-1) and Poland (4-2) in Prague with Paul Bräutigam showing himself to be a key goalscorer with three of the goals.
Max Kelner showed he is another important cog in the side which is coached by Robin Rösch who said they side a are well on our way to preparing for the European Championship and will continue to work on the small areas that need to be improved.”
Their panel features five of the side that finish in seventh place in the top division two years ago as well as numerous Euro U21 indoor champions like captain Mateusz Nyckowiak.
Hosts Poland are captained by Robert Pawlak who has already amassed 30 senior international caps, was player of the tournament and top scorer at the Euro U21 indoors and won a silver medal at this year’s EuroHockey Indoor Championships.
He is among four players from AZS Poznań University of Technology. Both Jakub Mikołajczak and Szymon Cyprych also played in the Junior World Cup in 2021 with Pawlak.
Italy would love to make a push for a return to the top level for the first time since 2000 having finished between fourth and seventh in the second division for the past 18 years.
They have some big talents in their side Felix Dionisi Vici who has already been among the goals for the senior team while Valerio Iossa scored one of the most memorable goals of the Under-18 B division goals last summer.
Leonardo Palumbo, Daniele Cavallini and Dario Saoncella remain of the side that finished in fifth place two years ago.
Ukraine have a natural leader in goalkeeper Bohdan Yurkov who is now entering his third EuroHockey U21 campaign. He played in the third tier in Vilnius in 2019 and Helsinki in 2022, finishing in silver in the latter competition.
Since then, he also won a European silver last month at the senior 5s competition in this same venue. Seven of his team mates also played in 2022 with Oleksandr Boiko another one to look out for.
Lithuania have been working with a solid core of this team in various guises over the past few years with seven of their panel having already played with the senior international side.
Teenager Povilas Sinkevičius scored 13 times for their 5s team in Walcz last month to mark him out as a big talent with 13 of this year’s panel are available from their 2022 side who finished third in Championship III in Helsinki.
