IPC Ice Sledge Hockey announced that it will live stream all games from next week's IPC Ice Sledge Hockey Qualification Tournament in Torino, Italy, an event that will determine the rest of the field for the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games. From 20-26 October, six teams - Italy, South Korea, Sweden, Germany, Japan and Great Britain - will battle for the last three qualification spots available at Sochi 2014. The event will kick off on Monday (21 October) at 10:00 local time when host nation and European Champions Italy take on Great Britain. The tournament will be played in round-robin style, with three games per day at 10:00, 13:30 and 17:00. All games can be watched live from around the world at http://bit.ly/IPCISHWatchLive. Craig Spence, IPC Director of Media and Communications, said: "With just three Sochi 2014 qualification spots up for grabs in Torino, the IPC Ice Sledge Hockey Qualification Tournament will be a fantastic event to showcase one of the most aggressive winter sports. "Competition will be fast and intense, and by live streaming it we will give the worldwide public a taste of the quality action they can expect in Sochi next March." In addition to the live stream, RAI Sport will broadcast all the host nation team's games throughout Italy. During the week leading up to the event, IPC Ice Sledge Hockey are unrolling a preview of one team per day, which can be found at http://bit.ly/15ALBxR. Host nation Italy enter the event as the No. 1 seed, and they are looking to qualify for their third straight Paralympics behind the veteran leadership of Florian Planker, Greg Leperdi and Andrea Chiarotti. No. 2 South Korea and speedy sledge star Seung-Hwang Jung are looking to rebound from their seventh-place finish at the IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships A-Pool on their home ice in Goyang last April, while third-seeded Sweden have competed in ice sledge hockey at every Paralympic Winter Games and hope to keep their streak alive by qualifying for Sochi. Germany, Japan and Great Britain head into the event seeded fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. Japan are the Vancouver 2010 silver medallists while Germany and Great Britain have not participated at the Paralympics since Torino 2006. Torino became known worldwide after hosting the 2006 Winter Games, which drew nearly 500 athletes from 38 countries across five different sports. There were 169,974 tickets sold for those Games, with the ice sledge hockey final selling out. Meanwhile, earlier this year, Canada, USA, Russia, Czech Republic and Norway all qualified for Sochi 2014 by finishing within the top five at the World Championships A-Pool. For more information on the IPC Ice Sledge Hockey Qualification Tournament, please visit the event website at www.Paralympic.org/Events/Torino-2013. To track the event on social media, follow IPC Ice Sledge Hockey at www.Facebook.com/IceSledgeHockey and www.Twitter.com/IPCISH.
