MUSCAT: The Oman Hockey Association (OHA) is gearing up to host 2024 Junior Asian Men’s hockey championship which will be staged in Oman Hockey Stadium, Al Amerat.
The tournament begins on Tuesday and runs until December 4.
The top six spots will secure their presence in the upcoming edition of the FIH Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2025 which will be played in India with an expanded competition format that will feature 24 teams for the very first time.
The Junior Asian tourney for nine days in Muscat will feature participation of ten teams which have been distributed into two pools. Chinese Taipei is heading pool A alongside with India, Japan, Korea and Thailand. The hosts Oman led pool B which also comprised Bangladesh, China, Malaysia and Pakistan.
The participating teams began their arrival in Muscat as South Korea, Pakistan, Japan, India and Malaysia departed from the Muscat International Airport in the last two days. The remaining teams are expected to arrive in a few days.
The format of the competitions in group stage will be from one round matches as each team will play four games. The top two teams in both pools will secure slots in the semifinals while the losing teams will play third and fourth positions playoff. The rest of the teams will compete for the place off classification matches.
As hosts country, India secured their qualification in the FIH Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2025. Belgium, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Austria and Switzerland have booked their spots from Europe. Argentina, Canada and Chile have qualified from the Americas. Following the six qualifiers from Junior Asia Cup, three more teams from Oceania and Africa (each) will qualify for the World Cup to complete the qualification process in the upcoming few months.
OHA concluded recently the junior hockey centres tournament which featured participation of many domestic clubs. Oman technical staff headed by Mohammed al Batarani and the coaching staff selected some faces for the national hockey team who will represent the team in the upcoming Junior Asian Men’s hockey championship.
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