BUENOS AIRES – The Argentine inline hockey national team won the Rest of the World Inline Hockey Qualification, earning a return to the IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship taking place next year in Tampere, Finland.

First-time participant Hong Kong beat Chile, which played its first IIHF tournament since 2002, 9-2 in the first game but lost to host Argentina 5-2 at the Peru Beach Hockey Arena in Buenos Aires. That result put the Argentines in a promising position to advance. With a 7-0 win against Chile on Friday night the Argentines formalized the tournament win and booked their tickets for Tampere.

Hong Kong was the toughest challenger and came back from a three-goal deficit against Argentina with second-period goals from Shin Ming Jasper Tang and Jordan Sun Yin Ho. However, the Argentines dominated the play in any period outshooting the Hong Kongers 61-14. Veteran national players Facundo Vadra (1+2), Agustin Chiaravalloti (1+2) and Rodrigo Irisarri (1+1) were responsible for their team’s crucial last three goals.

For Argentina it will be a comeback at the world stage since two years ago when they beat Brazil to qualify for the Worlds at the same rink but lost all five games of the 2013 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship, including two in shootouts against Australia and Hungary.

Argentina will replace relegated Brazil making it the third consecutive Inline Hockey World Championship with South American participation.

The 2015 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship will take place in Finland’s second-largest urban area from 5th to 11th July 2015.

The first-ever Inline Hockey World Championship in the country of the defending world champion will be hosted in the Tampere Ice Stadium (also known as Hakametsa) that held the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in 1965, 1982, 1991, 1997 and 2003 as well as the Women’s World Championship in 1992 and the U18 World Championship in 2007 with the main rink offering a capacity for 7,800 spectators and a secondary rink that will host the Division I tournament.

Argentina will face Australia, Croatia and Hungary in its Division I group while the winner of the European qualification event, Bulgaria, will be seeded in a group with Great Britain, Latvia and Austria.

Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Slovenia in Group A; and Canada, the United States, Germany and Slovakia in Group B will battle for the world title in the top division.

Click here for box scores from the qualification.

MARTIN MERK

2015 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship in Tampere, Finland

Top Division:
Group A: Finland (1), Sweden (4), Czech Republic (5), Slovenia (8).
Group B: Canada (2), USA (3), Germany (6), Slovakia (7).

Division I:
Group C: Great Britain (9), Latvia (12), Austria (13), Argentina (16).
Group D: Australia (10), Croatia (11), Hungary (14), Bulgaria (15).