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Korean ice hockey’s PyeongChang hopes take a major hit

April 25, 2014

Canadian ice hockey players Michael Swift, left, and Brian Young smile as they hold up Korean citizenship papers earlier this year. (Yonhap)

(Yonhap) — South Korea’s chances of participating in men’s ice hockey on its home ice at the 2018 Winter Olympics appear slim after the country suffered relegation to the third tier of international play this week.

South Korea on Thursday fell to Japan 4-2 for its fourth consecutive loss at the ongoing International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship, Division I Group A in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.

South Korea clinched last place among six participants with one game remaining, and will be demoted to Division I Group B next year.

The top two teams at this championship will be promoted to the Elite Division for the 2015 world championship, while the third, fourth and fifth nations will remain in Division I Group A next year.

South Korea needed to at least stay at its current level to have a fighting chance of competing in hockey at the next Winter Games in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul. The men’s hockey tournament is considered the marquee event of the Winter Olympics, and it has featured top professionals from the National Hockey League (NHL) since the 1998 Nagano Winter Games.

Host nations don’t automatically qualify to play in Olympic hockey competitions. Rene Fasel, president of the IIHF, has previously said he would consider giving South Korea a spot in the Olympic tournament as long as the 2018 host improved its world rankings to No. 18 by the 2016 IIHF Congress, where officials will determine the format for the 2018 Olympic competition.

South Korea is ranked No. 23, an improvement of 10 spots over the past four years.

In an interview last January with Around the Rings, a U.S.-based Olympic news website, Fasel was quoted as saying, “We will do everything possible to support the Korean federation to prepare the team for PyeongChang for 2018. It’s a challenge, but it would be not good for hockey not having the national team for Korea playing in the men’s tournament.”

South Korea recently fast-tracked Canadian-born players to Korean citizenships in hopes of improving its world rankings, but the country will have to wait for another chance to climb up the standings.

The loss to Japan means South Korea will finish last even if it defeats Ukraine in Saturday’s final.