KOLKATA: A day after winning the Asian Champions Trophy, the Indian women’s hockey team on Monday got to know the seven teams they will compete with in the Olympic Qualifiers to be held in Ranchi from January 13-19.
Besides India, the seven teams are Germany, New Zealand, Japan, the USA, Chile, the Czech Republic and Italy and they will compete for three spots in the Paris Olympics. India could have grabbed a direct qualification to 2024 Olympics with a gold medal at the Asian Games but they will now have to finish among the top three in the Qualifiers to book a place at the Games.
Considering India will be playing at home and only Germany at No. 5 are higher-ranked than them, booking an Olympic spot shouldn’t be an issue for Savita & Co. Moreover, the team will be on a high following their victory in the Asian Champions Trophy where they beat Japan 4-0 in the final at Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Astro Turf Hockey Stadium in Ranchi on Sunday, in front of a record crowd.
Their unbeaten title run at the tournament showed that they had put the Asiad miss behind and were riding with a new-found vigour. Players like Sangita Kumari, Salima Tete, Neha, Navneet Kaur and Vandana Katariya were brilliant throughout the tournament as India finished with the all-win record scoring a total of 27 goals and conceding just three. Others like Lalremsiami and Deepika stepped up whenever needed and kept the winning momentum going.
They did, however, look a bit shaky early in the event but it completely eased out as the tournament progressed. The success rate of scoring from penalty corners was also not up to the mark during most games but the way India converted on two occasions in the final, it had coach Janneke Schopman breathe a sigh of relief by the end of the night.
“The penalty corners made the difference today (Sunday). Sometimes the girls just need a wake-up call and I didn’t even show them the PCs from the semifinal. I just told them, ‘It’s not good enough, girls.’ I said, ‘You don’t have to score, you just execute. If you execute, let’s see what happens.’ Today, they only decided amongst themselves on the variation and I’m really happy with that,” the coach said after the final.
The team will now hope to carry forward this performance to January, where the eight teams will be divided into two pools – that have not been announced yet.
It was following the conclusion of hockey at Pan American Games and African Hockey Road to Paris 2024, that five men’s and women’s teams gained direct qualification to the Olympics as Continental Champions, in addition to hosts France.
The rest of the teams – 16 men’s as well as women’s – secured their place in the Qualifiers so the pools for these qualification tournaments have been revealed. These 16 teams were then divided into two groups. While the two groups of eight women’s teams will be playing in Ranchi and Valencia, the men’s teams will compete in Muscat and Valencia.
Men’s teams for qualifiers: In Muscat: Great Britain, Germany, New Zealand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Canada, Chile, China; In Valencia: Belgium, Spain, Korea, Ireland, Japan, Austria, Egypt, Ukraine
