Four days, twelve arenas, seven hundred games and four thousand floorball players. That is the dose of floorball the summer Prague is going to receive from tomorrow. It hosts already the eighteenth year of Chance Czech Open, the world's biggest floorball tournament.
The traditional club event will offer a varied range of floorball encounters. A total of 244 teams from sixteen countries will fight for the medals in five categories. As every year, the spectators can look forward to a delicacy in the form of two elite categories, thanks to which the Czech Republic will see famous clubs as well as top European players.
The men's elite category will include the last year's tournament finalists, Dalen and Pixbo from Sweden, or the six-time Swiss champion, Wiler-Ersigen, who will come to Prague with their new acquisition, the legendary Swedish national team defender, Henrik Quist. The eight representatives of the Swedish, Finnish and Swiss elite floorball will be joined by the eight best Czech teams, who are awaiting a triumph at the summer Prague tournament from the year 1999 already. They would surely like to end the domination of Swedish teams. The Vikings have triumphed at Chance Czech Open eight times from the last nine years.
Apart from the men's category, also the women's elite includes top teams of the floorball world. Six Swedish teams add to four Czech teams, the Swiss vice-champion from Winterthur and the Slovak champions from Nemšová.
What is more, the elite floorball will not remain closed in the arenas in Prague. The medal games will be broadcast live by the TV stations ČT4 and Eurosport 2 in forty-six countries of Europe.
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