Chowder Goes To The IPC Sled Hockey World Champs

I'm sitting writing this in Heathrow Airport, London, while beginning a 24 hour journey via Doha, Qatar and Seoul that round about this time tomorrow will see me arrive in Gangneung, South Korea, home of the 2018 Winter Olympics Ice Hockey in Pyeongchang.

Next week sees the cream of the sled hockey world come together for the 2017 World Championships, as the USA, Canada and the rest of the elite nations battle for world supremacy and a vital tournament win in one of the last major competitions before the Winter Olympics next year. Even more importantly, there's not just pride to play for if you miss out on the knockout rounds, but placing - as the top five teams in this tournament will qualify automatically for the Winter Olympics, with the bottom two needing to play through a qualification tournament for the rest of the places.

I'm out there working on the international broadcast team, and I'll be doing my best to provide daily updates for Chowder and SBN on the tournament and my experience there in a daily diary, from arrival and setting up to the competition itself.

But first, taking to the skies awaits. Check back each day for daily updates and a preview of the competition over the next few days, before things get going on the 11th April.

The tournament's official site is here, and if you've never seen sled hockey before, here's an ideal taster - the last Winter Olympics gold medal game, in full.

Here's hoping we'll see a similar level of competition this week in Gangneung.