The World Para Ice Hockey A-Pool Championships in Ostrava has been moved to June ©World Para Ice Hockey

The World Para Ice Hockey A-Pool Championships has been rescheduled to June to allow organisers to prepare extra safety protocols for the event.

Competition had been due to take place from May 1 to 8.

The event, a qualifier for next year's Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing, has now been moved to June 19 to 26.

World Para Ice Hockey revealed they are collaborating with the Local Organising Committee to use the extra preparation time to implement comprehensive health and safety protocols throughout the event in compliance with local and national guidelines.

"World Para Ice Hockey is looking forward to bringing the World Championships back to Ostrava, and doing so in accordance with all health and safety procedures to ensure a safe event for all athletes, teams and staff involved," Michelle Laflamme, the World Para Ice Hockey manager, said. 

"The World Championships will provide an exciting opportunity for people around the world to tune-in and witness the first Para ice hockey international event since the COVID-19 pandemic began."

Competition is scheduled to take place in the Ostravar Arena for the second consecutive World Championships.

The venue hosted the 2019 event, which was praised as having unprecedented media and broadcast coverage.

Ostrava also hosted the World Championships in 2009.

United States are the reigning world and Paralympic champions ©Getty Images
United States are the reigning world and Paralympic champions ©Getty Images

Organisers claim there has been interest in buying tickets for the World Championships, but ticket sales will not be launched at this time.

"The tournament will take place according to strict health and safety measures," said Jiri Sindler, head of Ostrava 2021.

"We are already receiving great interest from fans in purchasing tickets, and we thank all of our fans for their support, however we will not be launching ticket sales at this time.

"We are working intensively to ensure that our fans will be able to watch the entire World Championships online."

Eight teams are due compete at the World Championships, with the top five finishers qualifying for Beijing 2022.

The three other participants will take part in a qualification tournament to be held at a later date to try to earn their spots in Beijing.

United States will begin the tournament as the defending Paralympic and world champions, with Canada and South Korea considered their main rivals.

Hosts Czech Republic, Norway, Italy, Russia and Slovakia completed the line-up for the competition.

Russia and Slovakia finished in the top two spots at last year’s B-Pool World Championships in Berlin.