International Ice Hockey Federation

Meet the Kozaky

Meet the Kozaky

Ukrainian Cossacks serve as mascots

Published 21.04.2017 22:03 GMT+3 | Author Organizing Committee
Meet the Kozaky
The “Kozaky“ pictured next to the Palace of Sports. Photo: Martin Merk
The 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A begins tomorrow in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Time to meet the mascots.

Kozaky – Cossacks in Ukrainian language – are famous cartoon characters and real friends. They travel a lot through time and space facing different adventures: rescuing brides, helping musketeers, meeting aliens...

Still, sport is the passion number one for the Cossacks. Being smart, skilful and strong they always win in every game. In the first cartoon of 1970, the friends played football with knights in Germany, with musketeers in France and with noblemen in England, and won three times.

In the cartoon of 1978, the Cossacks joined Olympic athlets and contributed to their victory. Then, in the cartoon of 1995, they stood up to a team of gangsters in a hockey game.

After a long time-out the three friends came back to play football in a cartoon series of 2016. And in 2017 it’s getting even better.

The “Kozaky“ heard of the 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A in Ukraine and started training... The Ukrainian organizer was well informed that they have a long history of bringing luck and invited them to become the mascots for the sport event. The three Cossacks joined the organizing committee and the championship is supposed to bring real fun with them.

Each Cossack has his own specific features:
Tur (the biggest) is strong and reliable,
Hrai (the tallest) is smart and cool-headed,
Oko (the smallest) is quick and determined.
And together they are legends on ice!

The 2017 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A begins on Saturday. Hungary, Kazakhstan, Poland, Austria, Korea and Ukraine battle for the top-two places to earn promotion to the 2018 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Denmark.

 

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