From the start of 2019, the hockey coaches are obsessed with Commonwealth Games which are going to hold this year. Harendra Singh and Sjoerd Marijne have placed Asian Games on top because Gold medal won in Jakarta helped in confirming their place in the Tokyo Olympics. The Indian girls have made to the London World Cup as they won Asia Cup Womens tournament in the year 2018. The womens hockey team wasnt able to win Asian games; else, they might have got a direct entry for Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Other than the host (Japan), there are 11 teams which are eligible to be qualified in Tokyo Olympics 2020. The Indian women became runner ups in the Asian games, and thats why they would find it difficult to get direct entry into the Olympics. The team will have to play in the Olympics Qualification Events.
Continental Championships for women to qualify for Olympics 2020.
The womens hockey team has to win the continental championships to get a direct qualification in Olympics 2020. Here are the continental championships for women:
- 14th European Nations Championship for Women
- Africa Womens Olympic Qualification Tournament 2019
- 18th Pan American Games 2019
- 18th Asian Games 2018
- 11th Womens Oceania Cup 2019
The teams which arent able to get into the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics directly via continental qualifiers, then they have to play in the elaborate round held by the Olympics. India hasnt qualified directly for the Olympics, but this tournament for qualification might help them to enter in the Olympics 2020.
Qualify for the Hockey Series
International Hockey Federation teams can play Hockey series open till they arent part of Hockey Pro League. In the next few years, Hockey Series Open will become a qualifying round for the World Cup also. This tournament is played in two parts: One is Hockey Series Open and the second one is Hockey Series Finals. The Hockey Series Open can be played by India as well as Vilnius, Wattignes, Port Vila and Singapore.
Hockey series finals
There will be a total of 24 teams which will participate in the Finals of the tournament. The three events will take place for eight teams each. The top two teams from the Finals are going to qualify for the Olympic qualification events, and they can join the Hockey Pro League. According to the FIH World rankings, the two teams who will get high ranks will have to place against each other. The top six teams from the qualification event would join other five teams who have already secured their places in the Olympics through continental championships. The Indian womens hockey team would have a busy year as they have to prepare for the qualification events in the best manner to enter in the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Know about Hockey Pro League tournament
Earlier, Hockey World League is now named as Hockey Pro league, and there will be nine teams which will play against each other, and only four teams will be qualified for the final round. Great Britain, Belgium, Argentina, Australia, Spain, New Zealand, Germany, and the Netherlands would be part of the Pro League. India is also a major hockey team in the world, but it wont be participating in HPL, but have to qualify through Hockey series to get into the Olympics 2020.
The FIH has announced the significant criteria for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 for hockey teams, and this means that India has to appear in two rounds to get qualified for the Olympics 2020. One is the series finals and the second is Olympic qualifiers. The Indian womens hockey team wont be able to participate in the Pro League, and thats why it will become more difficult for them to score high in the qualifier round. The nine teams which are already in the Pro League would earn ranking points when they will play every single game at Pro League, and they would also be able to play at least 16 games.
Whats more for Indian women hockey team?India might slide down in the world rankings if they don't come up in the top two teams of Hockey Series finals. The final qualifier round of Indian team will come against a highly ranked team. A lot of pressure is building on the players, but 2018 has been a good year for the Indian hockey team. The team would try to enter the Tokyo Olympics 2020 as they are hungry to get more. They arent satisfied with their performances till now, and they believe that better performance could be done by them to improve the ranking and win a place in the Olympics 2020.
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