FIH
The FIH today released the schedules for four of its six Olympic Qualification Tournaments.
The first of the Olympic Qualification tournaments will be held in New Delhi, India from February 18-26. The men’s field will include India, Canada, France, Poland, Italy and the United States. India enters the event as the highest-ranked team in the FIH World Ranking in the group at #10.
Meanwhile, in the women’s tournament in India, the participating teams are South Africa, India, Italy, Canada, Ukraine and Poland. South Africa is the top-seeded team with a #12 spot in the World Ranking.
New Delhi Men’s Qualification Tournament Schedule
New Delhi Women’s Qualification Tournament Schedule
Also released was the schedule for the Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournament in Dublin, Ireland. That event will also feature six teams and will be held from March 10-18. Korea will be the team to beat, entering the tournament as the sixth-ranked team in the FIH World Ranking. Challenging the Koreans will be Malaysia, Ireland, Russia, Chile and Ukraine.
Dublin Men’s Qualification Tournament Schedule
Finally, the schedule for the second of the three Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments was also finalized. The event will be held in Antwerp, Belgium from March 17-25 and features a very competitive group of six teams. Three of the six teams are within six World Ranking points of each other with Spain topping the group at #11. Ireland holds the #14 spot and Belgium is not far behind at #16. Rounding out the group are Russia, France and Mexico.
Belgium Women’s Qualification Tournament Schedule
The schedule for the remaining men’s and women’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments, scheduled to be held in Kakamigahara, Japan from April 25-May 6, will be released at a later date.
In total six Olympic spots are up for grabs, three on the men’s side and three on the women’s. The winners of each of the six Olympic Qualification Tournaments will earn a berth to the London 2012 Games.
Source: FIH
http://www.fih.ch/en/news-3482-olympic-qualification-schedules-released
