Kazakhstan’s men’s national ice hockey team has secured an immediate return to the top division of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship after winning the 2026 Division I, Group A tournament in Sosnowiec, Poland.
Under the championship format, the two lowest-ranked teams in the top division are relegated each year, while the top two teams from Division I, Group A earn promotion.
Kazakhstan and France were relegated from the elite division in 2025 and returned this May to compete for promotion back to the top tier.
The Division I tournament, which began on May 2, featured Kazakhstan, France, Poland, Ukraine, Japan, and Lithuania.
Kazakhstan entered the tournament under head coach Talgat Zhailauov, who was leading the national team at a World Championship for the first time.
By May 7, Kazakhstan had moved to the top of the standings with victories over Lithuania (4-1), Japan (6-0), and Poland (3-2).
The decisive match came against Ukraine, Kazakhstan’s closest challenger in the standings.
Vsevolod Logvin opened the scoring for Kazakhstan before Ukraine equalized. In the second period, goals from Kirill Lyapunov and veteran forward Roman Starchenko gave Kazakhstan a 3-1 advantage, but Ukraine fought back to level the score once again.
Ukraine then took the lead early in the third period before Batyrlan Muratov quickly equalized, sending the game into overtime.
No winner emerged in extra time, and Muratov scored the decisive goal in the shootout to seal a dramatic 5-4 victory for Kazakhstan.
The win lifted Kazakhstan to 11 points, leaving the team unreachable with one round remaining for Poland, Ukraine, and France, all of whom had seven points.
“The guys are fantastic. I’m proud of them, and I think the whole country is proud of this team,” Zhailauov said after the match. “It was an extremely difficult game today. I wouldn’t say we were lucky, we simply had a little more skill.”
The coach added that team selection had been based not on experience, but on players’ current form.
“I believed in the younger players, and with every game they kept improving. It turns out the choice was the right one,” he said.
Kazakhstan will play its final match of the tournament against France on May 8. The game will have no impact on Kazakhstan’s standing, while France must win in regulation time to keep its hopes of promotion alive.
The Times of Central Asia previously reported that Kazakhstan had introduced a legal ban on the use of public funds to finance foreign athletes in team sports, including hockey.
