2011 Oceania Cup: Hosting of the First London Olympic Hockey Qualifier awarded to Tasmania
The 2011 Oceania Cup, which will be the first London Olympic qualifier tournament, will take place at the Hobart Hockey Centre, Tasmania in Australia from October 5 to 9. Australian men’s and women’s team, Kookaburras and Hockeyroos, respectively, will be
face-to-face with Fiji and New Zealand.
Tasmania’s Minister for Sport and Recreation, Brian Wightman, joined up with Hockey Australia to make the announcement that Tasmania will host the hockey’s first London Olympic Qualifier tournament, named as the 2011 Oceania Cup.
Wightman commented, “This is a real coup for Tasmania and testament to our truly world class facilities here at the Tasmanian Hockey Centre. I’d like to thank Hockey Australia for their decision to bring the Oceania Cup to Hobart and look forward to the
hockey action this October.”
According to the International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) world ranking policy, Australia and New Zealand have already qualified for the Olympic event. However, their performance in this qualifier will determine their seed and pool for the mega event. Higher
the ranking, the more favourable the draws will turn out to be for the London event.
Moreover, this event will bring a chance for the Australian hockey men to take revenge of the past encounters with the New Zealand team. Precisely, they would look forward to settle their 2008 Olympic qualifier and the recent 2010 World qualifier defeats.
On the contrary, the world’s 72 ranked team Fiji will participate in the Oceania Cup after six years, putting up a great fight against the strong competitors to secure a berth into the 2012 London Olympics. Only the men’s team will be fielded by Fiji for
the competition to strive for their first ever Olympic debut in field hockey.
The Oceania Cup 2011 will be the first international hockey event to be held in Tasmania after the Junior World Cup 2001. Since 1995, it would be the first time that Hockeyroos will play in Tasmania.
Chief Executive of Hockey Australia, Mark Anderson, expressed his happiness to bring the world class event to Tasmania and said, “There is no doubt that the hockey facilities in Hobart are world class. The Kookaburras played in Tasmania in early 2010 and
the finals of the 2009 Australian Hockey League were also played in Hobart.”
Moreover, Anderson was pleased with the large support offered by the hockey fans to Hockey Australia in the last competitions and shared his hope of receiving a same kind of response for the October event too.
Kookaburras’ coach Ric Charlesworth commented the Oceania cup as a stepping-stone for the team to head their way to the London Olympics 2012. He said that although his team has already qualified for the Olympics, playing well in this tournament will also
be of paramount importance. The team will then be all set to play for the London Olympics. There will be a fierce competition amongst the team-members to secure their spot in the team.
Charlesworth further stated that they have a large number of players to consider for the final squad. This would be one of the only chances for the players to prove their competencies and be a part of the international hockey team.
The match schedule is expected to be released by the organising body within the next couple of months.
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