Lausanne (Switzerland): The Indian women’s hockey team will take on Germany, New Zealand, Japan, Chile, the United States, Italy and the Czech Republic in the Olympic Qualifiers to be held in Ranchi between January 13-24.
The teams finishing in the top 3 in the 8-team competition will make it to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Following the conclusion of the Continental qualifying events with the end of the Pan-American Games and the African Hockey Road to Paris 2024, the FIH has revealed the pools for the three Olympic qualifying events to be held next year.
Till now, five men’s and women’s teams have gained direct qualification to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 as Continental Champions, in addition to the hosts France.
A further 16 men’s and women’s teams have simultaneously secured their place at the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers 2024, so the pools for these qualification tournaments have now been revealed.
The 16 teams per gender have been divided into two groups, with eight teams travelling to each location: Muscat, Oman and Valencia, Spain for the men, and Ranchi, India, and Valencia, Spain for the women.
Eight men’s teams that will compete in Muscat, Oman are Great Britain, Germany, New Zealand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Canada, Chile and China.
The eight men’s teams that will compete in Valencia, Spain are Belgium, Spain, Korea, Ireland, Japan, Austria, Egypt and Ukraine,
The eight women’s teams that will compete in Valencia, Spain are Belgium, Great Britain, Spain, South Korea, Ireland, Canada, Malaysia and Ukraine.
The men’s and women’s teams have been divided into two groups based on their world ranking at midnight on November 5, 2023, once all Continental Championships were completed.
The teams that finish in the top 3 of each of the four FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers 2024 tournaments will seal their qualification to the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
The FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers 2024 will be played between January 13-24, 2024.
(IANS)
