Offspring of hockey players are included in the Latvian national team / Article

About offspring in hockey, the head coach of the Latvian national team, Harijs Vītoliņš, says that it is a common phenomenon all over the world. In the families of hockey players, training processes, games and victories are within arm’s reach since the child’s feet.

“For those who have sons, it’s a career for anyone – the son goes with him. I’ve accompanied my father to all the training sessions, I had the opportunity to go on the ice earlier than everyone else. I like to learn to skate and that’s how it goes,” said Vītoliņš.

Latvian Television called Artis Ābol to congratulate his son on his selection. Artis expressed that this is no longer a surprise. Rodrigo is aiming for the eighth world championship in his career, but the surprise is that Artis Ābols once tried to dissuade his son from hockey.

“For him [Rodrigo] never [hokejs] was not imposed. I have tried to talk him out of playing. You can play for fun or whatever, but focus more on education. But he stayed with hockey,” explained Artis Ābols.

There are still possible changes in the named national team – some players will go to the world championship, but at least at the beginning they will not be registered for the games. Initially, forward Martins Laviņš will also remain in the reserves. The management of the national team hopes that the place of the unregistered hockey players could be filled by players whose clubs are currently playing in the National Hockey League (NHL).

CONTEXT:

The World Championship will start in the Czech Republic on May 10, and the Latvian national team will start the group tournament on May 11 in Ostrava with a match against Poland. In the continuation of the group stage, they will have to play against France (May 12), Kazakhstan (May 14), Germany (May 15), Sweden (May 18), Slovakia (May 19) and the USA national team (May 21). The four strongest teams in the group will advance to the quarterfinals.

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