MUSCAT: The action of FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier will begin in Muscat as eight teams vie for the three direct tickets to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
The new Oman Hockey stadium is all set to host matches of the teams divided into two groups. Pool A comprises Great Britain, Malaysia, Pakistan and China while Pool B features Germany, New Zealand, Canada and Chile teams.
Muscat city is among the three cities around the world to host the Hockey Olympic Qualifier besides Valencia (Spain) and Ranchi (India).
The 2024 FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier event will begin on Monday with four matches. World champions Germany will take on Canada in the opener at 14:00 and this match will be followed by the New Zealand and Chile match which will start at 16:15. Then, Malaysia will play against China at 18:30 and Great Britain will face Pakistan at 20:45.
It is expected that the opening round of group matches will be very tough as all the teams will look to register victory to keep their hopes high to progress into the semifinals.
The playing format in the Hockey Olympic Qualifier will be based on a league system from one round as the first and second ranked teams in each pool will advance to the semifinals and the top three teams will secure tickets to Olympic Games.
The third and fourth ranked teams in the pool play classification matches (5th to 8th positions). The group matches will begin on Monday and will run until Thursday. On Saturday, the semifinal and classification matches will take place while on the following day, the final and the bronze-medal match to decide the three top winners will be staged.
COACHES READY
The team manager of China team, Wang Haiqin, said that the team began their preparations for the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier since they had booked the ticket to the Asian Games in China last September. “It was not an easy task to secure the ticket from Asia. Thanks to the team heroes as they had managed to earn one of the tickets to reach the final stage of the qualifier,” he said.
Commenting on his expectation on the matches, he responded: “It is expected to be tough matches as all the participating teams are world ranked teams. Furthermore, China are grouped in a very tight group which comprises Germany, who won the FIH World Cup 2023 in India. We will work hard to vie for one of the spots to the Olympic Games. The team attended several training sessions during the last two days in Muscat. It is difficult to talk about the team’s chances but I am assured that the team members will deliver their outstanding performance to secure one of the tickets,” he added.
New Zealand head coach Greg Nicol, affirmed that the team had started their preparatory programme a few weeks ago. “The team had organised some joint camps with Malaysia and South Korea teams. The training sessions were stopped during the New Year celebrations. The team arrived in Muscat on January 3 and began their last camp in Muscat. The focus was on physical fitness and creating different technical plans against the opponents. I am confident that our team will produce a good show in the event. We are currently concentrating on the group matches,” he said.
“We are very pleased to be here in Oman at these top hockey facilities. It is great to see Oman developed very well in hockey and they have some players who got professional opportunities to play abroad. Moreover, the new hockey infrastructure will support the nation to develop further in hockey,” he concluded.
Paul Revington, head coach of Great Britain, said that all the participating teams in this qualifier are top teams. “I am expecting tight competition among the top ranking teams. Our team attended several training sessions at Oman Hockey Stadium in Al Amerat. The weather is suitable now in Muscat and playing at the newly built stadium is great and will reduce the possibility of injury as the old grass sometimes raises chances of injury for the players if they fall down,” he said.
“The team began training camps in September and the squad is having daily training sessions. We are still continuing the warm-up practices until reaching the best level of technical readiness. There are no injured players and we are looking for an outstanding show in this qualifier,” he signed off.
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