FIH announce Olympic Pools
December 22, 2015
The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has today announced the pools for the men’s and women’s hockey event at the 2016 Rio Olympics Games.
The FIH has confirmed that Spain women and New Zealand men have officially accepted invitations to participate in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games hockey events.
This now confirms the 12 team line-ups for both the men’s and women’s hockey events for next year’s Olympics, and following last week’s FIH World Rankings update, the pools are now set.
Ireland sit in Pool B alongside world number two ranked Netherlands, defending Olympic champions Germany (3); Argentina (6); India (7); and Canada (14).
Pool A sees reigning World and Hockey World League champions Australia, currently ranked number one in the world, face Great Britain (4 – based on England’s ranking); 2015 Hockey World League runners up Belgium (5); New Zealand (8); Spain (11) and hosts Brazil (32).
The full match schedule for all the pool games and play-off stages will be confirmed later in February.
Speaking today, Coach Craig Fulton said “There has obviously been a lot of speculation about whether South Africa or New Zealand would take the last pool spot in the men’s tournament. Now that the Olympic pools have been decided we are obviously under no illusions of how tough the Olympic tournament is and the fact that we’re in a tough group. Looking at the opposite pool it is as strong which is not surprising. It doesn’t matter what group we’re in, we will be focusing solely on improving as individuals, and as a squad and team come Rio. Our first training camp is in early January and we’re looking forward to starting 2016 with a tough but enjoyable tourâ€.
Rio 2016 Olympic Games Hockey Events Pools
Men
Pool A Pool B
AUS (1) NED (2)
GBR (4) GER (3)
BEL (5) ARG (6)
NZL (8) IND (7)
ESP (11) IRL (12)
BRA (32) CAN (14)
Women
Pool A Pool B
NED (1) ARG (2)
NZL (4) AUS (3)
CHN (5) GBR (6)
GER (8) USA (7)
KOR (9) JPN (10)
