Women's Hockey Olympic Qualifiers 2024 Preview: India Aim To Qualify For Paris Olympics 2024

Add as a preferred source on Google

After an unfortunate fourth-placed finish at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, the Indian women's hockey team aims to secure its berth in the Paris Olympics 2024. India will compete in the Women's Hockey Olympic Qualifiers 2024 in Ranchi, from January 13 to 19.

Hosts India find themselves in Pool B for the Women's FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers, alongside New Zealand, Italy, and the USA. In total, eight teams are competing in the tournament, with four teams in Pool A, namely Germany, Japan, Chile, and the Czech Republic.

All matches are scheduled to take place at the Jaipal Singh Stadium in the Jharkhand capital. This tournament was earlier being held in China but Hockey India requested the FIH to change the venue as China already qualified for the Olympics after winning the Asian Games 2023 gold medal. India settled for the bronze medal in that event. India had the best chance to secure the Olympic quota there but the hopes were shattered after suffering a semi-final defeat against hosts China.

India have the upper hand in this Women's Hockey Olympic Qualifiers because last year in October/November in Ranchi, they won the Asian Champions Trophy unbeaten. The huge crowd turnaround and packed stands played an important role in the run.

India should not face any problems in topping the group because New Zealand (9th), USA (15th), and Italy (19th) are all below India (6th) in the rankings. However, against New Zealand, India often had trouble grinding out results as admitted by head coach Janneke Schopman during the tournament's opening press conference in Ranchi on Thursday.

"I think New Zealand is a good team because ranking doesn't matter much as New Zealand often make things difficult for us. I think the USA is a threat as well because they are the underdogs," said Schopman, who added that India are prepared for all the challenges.

The semi-finals will feature the top two teams from each pool, with the winners advancing to the summit clash and securing automatic berths for the main event in the Paris Olympics. The two losing semi-finalists will compete in a playoff to determine the third and final spot for Paris.

Six nations have already qualified for the Paris Olympics as hosts France and Asian Games Champions China are joined by Australia, Netherlands, South Africa, and Argentina. The rest of the six teams will be decided by January 20 as another Women's Hockey Olympic Qualifiers will be running concurrently in Valencia (January 13-20) with three places up for grabs there as well with nations like Spain, Belgium, Great Britain, South Korea among front runners.