It is almost 10 years since Pete Russell – reluctantly – took the helm as Great Britain’s head coach.

And it is more than 75 years since GB last appeared at the Winter Olympics.

This weekend 50-year-old Russell can celebrate a decade in charge by guiding the national side into the most prestigious competition in international ice hockey for the first time since 1948.

GB face hosts Denmark, Norway and Japan in Aalborg between 29 August and 1 September, with the winner of final qualifying group F sealing a place at the 2026 Winter Games in Milan.

For Russell, who also coaches Cardiff Devils, it could mark another significant landmark in the emergence of the British team since he took over.

It is a journey that initially he was reticent to even start.

In 2014 when Russell was director of hockey at the Okanagan Hockey Academy in Swindon, he was becoming sought after by clubs in the Elite League (EIHL) and the English Premier Ice Hockey League (EPIHL).

At the same time UK hockey were looking to fill a vacant position.

“They were trying to get a couple of coaches for the GB senior team, and it didn’t work out and they called me,” recalled Russell.

“They said to me, ‘We’ve spoken to a couple of high-end players, and they want you to coach the team’.

“I said, ‘I don’t want to coach the GB national team and they were like, ‘What?’

“I said, ‘Look, it’s an amazing thing to even be offered, but I just don’t think I can do that’.

“They said, ‘We want you to do it,’ and that’s where it all started.”

Russell, having returned to club hockey as head coach at Milton Keynes Lightning, was persuaded to take on the national role on a part-time basis.

He took charge of a Great Britain team in the third tier of world hockey, regularly ranked around 25th, and pretty much going nowhere.