Sep 21: India got a relatively easy pool to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. They will have to get past Austria, Bangladesh, Chile, Egypt and Great Britain in a six- nation tournament to make their way for the Olympics. The Olympic qualifying hockey tournament is scheduled to held at Santiago in Chile from March 1 to 9, 2008.
According to the International Hockey Federation (FIH) release, the three groups for the qualifiers to be held early next year, Germany will play their matches in Kakamigahara, Japan from April 5 to 13 along with the Czech Republic, Japan, Malaysia, Poland and Switzerland while New Zealand will host Argentina, Cuba, France, Ireland and Trinidad & Tobago at North Shore City, Auckland from February 2.
India managed to stick to their eighth spot making the grade for Chile according to the latest FIH world rankings released on Thursday, Being the highest ranked team in the fray, it should be a smooth run for India en route to the Olympics. However, they would need to watch complacency, especially against Great Britain, who has proved tough opponents in the past.
India, who has never failed to make the cut for the Olympics since 1928 and had a golden past backing them up, it will be the last chance for India, as they have to win the tournament to qualify for the Olympics.
Meanwhile, Indian women will fight it out with Belgium, Chinese Taipei, Netherlands Antilles, Russia and USA in the qualifying tournament scheduled at Kazan, Russia from April 19 to 27. This will be the second of the three qualifying competitions for women
In the men's category, nine teams including defending champions Australia, silver medallists the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, China, South Korea, Pakistan, South Africa and Spain have already made it for the next year Olympics.
Three more teams will be added to the 12-nation competition that is all winners of the qualifiers. FIH also announced three reserve teams each for the men's and women's category for the qualifying tournaments if any team stages a pull out.
The reserve nations in a specific order for the men's tournaments are Netherlands Antilles, the US and Mexico while France, Uruguay and Barbados were placed in the women's category.
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