Team Canada hockey player Haley Irwin visits with minor hockey players in Kamloops Tuesday afternoon.
(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)
September 09, 2014 - 2:46 PM
KAMLOOPS - Kamloops will host the 2016 IIHF women's world hockey championship, bringing the tournament to British Columbia for the first time in its 26-year history.
The 22 games will be split between the Interior Savings Centre and McArthur Island Sports and Event Centre in April of 2016.
Kamloops had bid to host the 2013 event, which was awarded to Ottawa.
"I have had the honour of coaching in Kamloops, I know the passion the city has for hockey, and I am sure it will be a first-class event on and off the ice that will grow the sport and provide young aspiring female hockey players with a chance to watch the best in the world," Tom Renney, the president and CEO of Hockey Canada, said in a release.
The world championship will be the second major international women's hockey event in Kamloops in a span of 18 months. Canada, Finland, Sweden and the U.S. will play in the Four Nations Cup there this November.
The 2016 tournament will mark the seventh time Canada has hosted the world championship — the previous tournaments were 1990 and 2013 in Ottawa, Ont., 1997 in Kitchener, Ont., 2000 in Mississauga, Ont., 2004 in Halifax, and 2007 in Winnipeg.
Canada has played in every gold-medal game in the tournament's history, winning 10 gold medals and five silver.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014