A nine-year old boy, who has won the right to open the World Ice Hockey Championship in Riga, is looking forward to Friday night when he is due to drop the puck in the first symbolic face-off.
"My son Niklavs from the central Latvian town Jelgava would always keep memories of the event as his biggest dream of his life is to become a professional hockey player," boy's mother told Baltic News Service.
Niklavs Birovs has been playing ice hockey from the age of four and currently is playing for the local Zemgale 96 club.
Niklavs' mother said that several classmates of his son also took part in the competition for the right to open the world hockey tournament. "Niklavs emerged as the winner, and now the whole class and his team-mates are proud of him," she added.
Recently, Niklavs won the right to open the international sporting event with a symbolic face-off by taking part in a competition "First Puck".
