2017 focused on World Cup qualification for Canada’s Senior men and women
PHOTO: A shot of Rutledge Field in West Vancouver, British Columbia. Canada’s women will host World League Round 2 here from April 1-9, 2017.
After two years focused on the Olympics, Canada’s senior men’s and women’s field hockey team shift their focus to the World Cup this year.
The 2017 competition calendar for both National Team is centered around qualification for the 2018 Men’s and Women’s Hockey World Cups. The men’s tournament will be hosted in India, while the women’s will take place in London, England.
Both teams will have two chances to qualify for the World Cup. The first comes in the form of World League Round 2.
The men are up first, playing from March 4th to 12th in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where they are currently the top ranked team and will face South Africa, Egypt, Bangladesh, China, and Sri Lanka.
The women play at home from April 1st-9th at West Vancouver’s Rutledge Field. They currently are the second ranked team in the top tournament, and will face India, Belarus, China, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay.
Both teams must finish in the top two of the competition to advance to World League Round 3 (Semi-Finals) later in the year.
If Canada’s men and women advance, they will each play in one of their two respective World Cup qualifying events. For the women, it will be either in Brussels, Belgium from June 21st to July 2nd, or Johannesburg, South Africa from July 8th to 22nd. The men would play in London from June 15th to 25th or in Johannesburg from July 9th to 23rd.
The top 10 finishers from both men’s and women’s World League Semi-Final events would qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
Whether they have qualified or not by the end of the World League competition, Canada’s senior men and women will both compete at the 2017 Pan Am Cup in Lancaster, Pennsylvania from August 4th to 13th. The winner of each tournament (men and women) receive an automatic berth to the 2018 World Cup.
If Canada has yet to qualify for the World Cup by that time and does not win the Pan Am Cup, there is still an outside chance of qualification, based on their final standing in the World League competition.
A scenario which would see this outcome through would be Team A winning the Pan Am Cup and also having qualified as the 10th team in World League. Their World League qualification spot would become invalid, and the Team in 11th spot (which would be Canada) would qualify.
Neither Canada’s men or women competed at the 2014 World Cups in the Netherlands. However, Canada’s men did compete at the 2010 World Cup in India.
