BUDAPEST – Two Hungarian veterans announced the end of their international careers. The 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship Division I Group A in Budapest was the last event with the national team for Andras Horvath and Viktor Szelig.

Both players will continue their career at the club level but won’t wear the red-white-and-green jersey of the national team anymore.

The 37-year-old defenceman Szelig has been playing for the national team since 1993 and hasn’t missed a single World Championship since then. The most recent team captain played 21 consecutive World Championships at three different levels with the 2009 IIHF World Championship in Switzerland in the top division as the highlight. He represented Hungary in 230 international games.

For next year he’s under contract in France with Briançon Diables Rouges where the Dunaujvaros native has been playing since 2006.

Horvath, also a defenceman and 37 years old, represented the men’s national team for the first time in 1995. The Budapest native didn’t miss a single World Championship event and appeared in 19 consecutive World Championships for the Hungarian national team and played 225 games for the national team.

At the end of the tournament the Japanese national team already had a farewell celebration for its long-time captain Takahito Suzuki, who had been playing for the national team since 1997 and ended his career with the event in Budapest.

MARTIN MERK