ICE HOCKEY: Great Britain call-up for Austin

Austin Mitchell-King travels to Tallinn in Estonia on Tuesday to represent Great Britain Ice Hockey at Under 18 level in their IIHF World Championship Tournament.

The team will have a three-day training camp to work on drills and team organisation and play a couple of challenge games before the tournament starts in earnest on Easter Sunday (April 1).

He is one of the youngest players in the GB team and gained his selection during trials last summer and the final one in Dumfries in December. Eight of the 22-man squad are based in North America whilst others play in UK Elite teams so Austin is in very good company.

Austin plays his club ice hockey for Coventry Blaze Academy Under 18 & Under 20 teams and is a leading points scorer for both this season.

When he reached his 16th birthday in November he was also able to step up into the senior game and has so far played 11 games for the Coventry Blaze NIHL Division 2 team (3rd tier of UK Ice Hockey) producing nearly a point per game. Also, this season he has again been selected for the Midlands Under 17 team and is aiming to play a major role in helping them retain the UK Championship which they won last year.

The IIHF tournament in Tallinn lasts seven days and GB will play one game each against Estonia, Australia, Poland, Lithuania and Korea attempting to win the gold medal and promotion to Division 1 for next season.

All the games are being shown live on UK TV on the FreeSports channel (available on Channel 95 on Freeview and also on Sky, BT, Freesat and TalkTalk).