India to host Paris Olympic hockey qualification for women at Ranchi

Published on: 22 Dec 2023 at 11:26 AM

Published by: thefactnews

New Zealand, December 22

A spot in Paris is on the line for the Vantage Black Sticks Men and Women as they head to Oman and India, respectively, for their Olympic qualification tournaments from January 13 to 21.

Muscat, Oman and Ranchi, India play host to an eight team tournament with the top three teams securing an Olympic berth. Consisting of two pools of four the top two teams in each pool advance to the semi-finals with the winners of the semi-finals automatically earning their spot, while the bronze medal match decides the final team.

The Black Sticks Men, ranked 11th in the world, have Canada (17), Chile (22), and old foes Germany (5), in their pool – with Great Britain, Pakistan, Malaysia, and China in the other. While the Women (9) face India (6), USA (15), and Italy (19) – Germany, Japan, Chile, and Czechia make up the other pool.

Both Black Sticks sides will be heading into their tournaments well prepared with the Women coming off a two match test series, and three friendly matches, against the USA – the test series was tied one apiece, but the Black Sticks won all three friendlies. The team will also have a stopover in Malaysia on the way to India for two warm up matches.

The Black Sticks Men have also completed a successful friendly series against Korea (10) and Malaysia (12) winning all eight of their games and hitting the back of the net 29 times providing them with confidence heading into Oman.

Men’s head coach Greg Nicol is pleased by what he saw from his team over the past two weeks saying, “We had some impressive performances across the December series which made selection highly competitive.

“We have prepared well for the challenge ahead and with the team playing well we are hopefully hitting our straps at the right time.”