GB to face Sochi Paralympic sledge hockey qualifier

The Great Britain sledge hockey team will compete for a place at the Sochi Winter Paralympics in the final qualifying tournament in Italy in October.

The GB team reached the last stage of qualifying after finishing third in the World B Championships in March.

What is sledge hockey

• Sledge hockey is a version of ice hockey for athletes with a lower limb disability
• Many of the rules and regulations are the same as ice hockey
• Athletes use specially designed sledges fitted with two blades to move across the ice
• They have two playing sticks which are used to propel themselves and also to control the puck
• The game is made up of three periods of 15 minutes in length
• Six players are allowed on the ice at any time

To get to Sochi, they must finish in the top three out of the six teams in Turin from 20-26 October.

Also taking part will be Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea and Sweden.

GB lost to Germany and Japan at the B tournament earlier this year while the other three teams all missed out from the A Championship.

The last time a GB sledge hockey team took part in the Paralympics was in Turin in 2006 where a team including London Paralympics T42 200m athletics champion Richard Whitehead finished seventh.

Also in that team were Paralympic sailor Stephen Thomas, who returned for the B Championship earlier this year, and javelin thrower Nathan Stephens, who has represented GB in Beijing and London.