The Championships, which are due to take place from April 12 until 20 April in the South Korean city of Goyang welcomes the world's best eight ice sledge hockey teams and will act as a qualifier for Sochi 2014 with the top five finishers qualifying directly for next years' Games.

Meanwhile, the bottom three teams will play in the Paralympic Qualification Tournament later this year.

The IPC hope that by making the competition accessible via its media channels will help to promote ice sledge hockey to areas less aware of the sport.

Craig Spence, IPC director of communications and media, said: "With less than one year to go until the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, viewers will have the chance to watch some of the top teams on the ice, and this will also provide those who have never seen the fast-paced
sport before the chance to view it for the first time."

The top five finishers of the 2013 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey Championships will qualify directly for the Sochi 2014 Winter Paralympic Games

The Championships, which has been held every four years since first starting out in 1996 in Sweden, will this year be organised by the South Korea Ice Hockey Association for the Disabled and will see the hosts up against Czech Republic, Italy, Norway and Sweden, United States and Russia to claim the title.

South Korea will be looking to repeat or better their silver winning performance from last year's event in Norway.

"Ice sledge hockey is not yet a popular sport in [South] Korea so public do not know much about us but we're trying hard to let people know about ice sledge hockey through our media channels," said South Korean ice sledge hockey captain Min-Su Han.

"Many people expect a lot from us at these World Championships in Goyang since we will be fighting to get to the Paralympics.

"We need to get good results from this A-Pool so that we can then expect good results at the Paralympics next year."

Alexi Salamone holds up the US flag as they claimed their gold medal at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games

Meanwhile, defending world and Paralympic champions the United States, who are led by forward Alexi Salamone, defender Taylor Chace and goalkeeper Steve Cash, will hope to retain their titles.

Cash commented: "I'm pretty confident going into the World Championships and feeling pretty good.

"I feel like my performances have been better than ever with the national team."

The United States face stiff competition from last year's bronze medallist Canada, while Russia will be making their debut into the A-pool competition.

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