A stellar line-up of the Czechoslovak and Slovak sport and Olympics met in Bratislava to launch a book entitled "Ice hockey stamp collecting”. The unique new book was christened with the pucks which will be used at the 2011 IIHF World Championship in Bratislava and Košice (29.4-15.5) by four Slovak Olympics representatives - Honorary Member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Honorary President of the Slovak Olympic Committee (SOC) Vladimir Černušák, a former long-serving Vice-President and head of the Slovak SOV Athletic Association (SAA) Mária Mračnová, President of the Slovak Society of Olympic and Sports stamp collecting and publisher the new book Ervin Smažák and legendary Czechoslovak hockey player Jozef Golonka along with a guest from across the Morava River - The President of Olymp Sport, the Society of Czech sports and Olympic Stamp Collecting and Jaroslav Petrásek.
The Slovak Post Office head of stamp and postal stamp production - Vladimir Stolár - pointed out that the Slovak Post Office had issued its fifth hockey themed stamp in history. “This time the stamp depicts the moment Slovak national team player Pavol Demitra converted the penalty at a game at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver thanks to which Slovakia won 2:1. The nominal value of the stamp is 0.40 Euros, the second part of the stamp costs 0.50 Euros – depicting Russian goaltender Iľja Bryzgalov during Demitra’s successful shot", stated Vladimir Stolar regarding the new stamp from the workshop of academic painter Ivan Bence, and sports photographer Ján Súkupa.
One of the godfathers of "Ice hockey Stamp Collecting" was famous hockey bad boy and attacker Jozef Golonka, who scored the first goal for Czechoslovakia at the 1959 World Championship in Bratislava and after the championship was declared the third best player in the whole championship. The postage stamp’s creators surprised him - the commemorative stamp for the opening of the 2011 World Championship in Bratislava features a caricature of Jozef Hrusovsky: the former captain of the Czechoslovak national team is captured in a typical jump after scoring a goal The theme of the commemorative stamp marking the opening of the 2011 World Championship in Bratislava and Košice is a portrait of the famous native and Czechoslovak player Ladislav Troják by painter Ivan Schurmann.
source: IIHF
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