Nine countries including Russia, the United States and Canada have secured a place in the 2014 Olympic ice hockey tournament in Sochi, the International Ice Hockey Federation has confirmed.
Qualification for the first nine of 12 Olympic participants is determined by countries’ places in the world rankings after world championships, ongoing in Sweden and Finland.
But after the group stage there is no chance of a country outside the top nine breaking into those places.
As well as Russia, the United States and Canada, places also go to Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Norway, Slovakia and Switzerland.
The teams ranked 10th, 11th and 12th, which are Germany, Latvia and Denmark, will each host one of three qualification tournaments against lower-ranked nations in February 2013.
Britain has a shot at qualification, but will need to beat Japan, Romania and one other team to reach the German tournament.
