FIH releases the schedule for the six Olympics Qualification Tournaments
In Lausanne, Switzerland, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) today, April 15, released the dates for nine huge hockey events that will be conducted next year.
Six of these events are the Olympic Qualification tournaments, for which both the sites and dates have been announced. Both the men’s and women’s tournaments will be held simultaneously and will be hosted by three distinct nations.
The 2011 calendar will be put to close with two major men’s events. The first tournament will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, named the FIH Champions Challenge 1, starting from November 26 – December 4, followed by the FIH Champions Trophy that will
commence from December 3-11 in New Delhi, India.
In this event, the world’s top eight countries will participate including the 2008 Olympic Champions Germany, 2010 World Cup winners, Australia, Netherlands, England, Spain, South Korea, Pakistan and the host, India.
On contrary to the prior year being closed with men’s events, the new calendar of 2012 will begin with a dynamic women event called the FIH Women’s Champions Trophy, beginning from January 28 – February 5 in Argentina.
The FIH President, Leandro Negre, stated, “The 2012 season will be one of the busiest and most important in recent history. Our regular schedule will be supplemented with the Olympic qualifiers and of course the Olympic Games themselves, making it non-stop
hockey during the year.”
The opening Olympic Qualification tournament will be hosted by India from February 15-26 in New Delhi. This event will comprise of six men’s and six women’s hockey teams that will compete to secure a spot for themselves in the 2012 London Olympic Games.
After a gap of one-month, the next Olympic Qualifiers will be held in Beerschot, Belgium from March 14-25, 2012 followed by the third Qualifiers that will take place in Kakamigahara, Japan from April 25 – May 6, 2012.
The three above mentioned Qualification tournaments will be featuring both the men’s and women’s event at the same time.
These three events will be the final chances for all the participant teams of both men’s and women’s discipline to make it to the 2012 London Olympics.
The teams that will end-up to compete in these qualification rounds can only be determined by the end of the continental championships this year after the Pan American Games (PAG) that will conclude on October 29. Moreover, the team who wins all the five
Continental Championships will earn an automatic berth to the upcoming Olympics.
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