FIH Olympic qualifier

[Saffron Lenin]

International Hockey Federation Withdraws Pakistan’s Hosting Rights for Olympic Qualifiers

The decision conveyed through a letter to the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), comes in the wake of concerns voiced by the international hockey authority.
As per media reports, one of the main reasons cited by the FIH for this decision was the overt interference of the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) in the day-to-day affairs of PHF.

https://propakistani.pk/2023/09/12/inte ... ualifiers/

[Saffron Lenin]

Indian women’s hockey team handed boost to make cut for Paris Olympics after qualifiers shifted to Ranchi
FIH announced that the decision was being made because the Chinese women’s national team qualified directly to the Paris Olympic Games through winning the Asian Games.

https://indianexpress.com/article/sport ... i-8992561/

[jayakris]

^^ Nice!!

[sameerph]

So, this is our pool for tournament to be played in Ranchi from Jan 13 to Jan 19, 2024-

Germany, India, New Zealand, Japan, Chile, United States, Italy, Czech Republic

3 of the 8 teams will qualify for the Paris Olympics.

[Saffron Lenin]

Men

Muscat, Oman: Great Britain, Germany, New Zealand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Canada, Chile and China

Valencia, Spain: Belgium, Spain, Republic of Korea, Ireland, Japan, Austria, Egypt and Ukraine

Women

Ranchi, India: Germany, India, New Zealand, Japan, Chile, the United States, Italy and the Czech Republic

Valencia, Spain: Belgium, Great Britain, Spain, Korea, Ireland, Canada, Malaysia and Ukraine


https://olympics.com/en/news/fih-hockey ... ps-details

[PKBasu]

Tough pool for the Indian women. Germany and the US will be tough opponents, but hopefully we'll squeeze in through home support ahead of NZ and Japan (the latter we have just beaten comfortably at the ACT).

[Saffron Lenin]

Tough pool for the Indian women. Germany and the US will be tough opponents, but hopefully we'll squeeze in through home support ahead of NZ and Japan (the latter we have just beaten comfortably at the ACT).

I think it is a easier pool....The other pool has Belgium, GB and Spain!!! Even I consider Korea difficult than Japan ( keep in mind that Korea didn't send it's full team in Asian champion trophy)

USA is tough but it is similar to NZ in overall strength.... We need to top our group to avoid meeting Germany in semis!!!

[Saffron Lenin]

Damm!!!! USA and NZ are in same group as ours!!! Now, its very difficult for us to top the group!!! If we finish 3rd in the group, then we are out of the olympics!!!

[sameerph]

At worst case, we will have to beat one of New Zealand and USA at group stage and either Japan or Chile whoever comes up in bronze medal match. We should not be complaining about this draw as all these teams are ranked lower than us.

[prasen9]

The aim is to get a bronze at the Olympics. If we cannot even win here, then how are we suddenly going to get better? If we do not win and can barely qualify, then whether we qualify or not does not matter much. We need to qualify at home.

[Saffron Lenin]

The aim is to get a bronze at the Olympics. If we cannot even win here, then how are we suddenly going to get better? If we do not win and can barely qualify, then whether we qualify or not does not matter much. We need to qualify at home.

The thing with Women hockey is that our domestic level is quite low!!! I have seen semis of men and women in national games. The level of men hockey is quite high, but the level in women is very low!!!
Especially 2nd semi between Jharkhand vs MP women, quality of game was very low!!!

[Saffron Lenin]

As far as winning Olympics medal is considered, there are only 4 teams which I consider the gap between India and them is too high to beat them . They are : Netherlands, Argentina, Germany and Australia !!! Team like England/GB and Belgium are better but certainly are beatable by India

[prasen9]

We need to improve.

[Saffron Lenin]

We need to improve.

We should not forget that Finishing 4th at Tokyo olympic was a kind of fluke... We barely qualified for QF after losing 3 initial matches and then did UPSET OF THE DECADE (if not CENTURY) against Australia!! Then we lost both semis and bronze medal match!!!

[Saffron Lenin]

‘Olympic Qualifiers is do-or-die for us’

Punia & Co have a shot at redemption with the FIH Olympic Qualifiers scheduled at the same venue in Ranchi from January 13 to 19, 2024. World No. 6 India will compete with Germany (No. 5), New Zealand (9), Japan (11), Chile (14), USA (15), Italy (19) and Czech Republic (25) with the top three teams qualifying for Paris. “The Olympic Qualifiers is a do-or-die event for us. In fact, immediately after we won the ACT, our coach [Janneke Schopman] told us to forget about it and start thinking about the Olympic Qualifiers. It’ll be a tough tournament with teams like Germany and New Zealand in the fray, but we have nothing to lose. Our team deserves to go to the Paris Olympics at any cost,” concluded Savita.

https://www.mid-day.com/sports/other-sp ... s-23318950