Bhubaneshwar in Odisha has emerged as one of the preferred destinations for the International Hockey Federation (FIH). After successfully staging Men's World Cup last year, the capital city has been given the rights to host one of the three Men's FIH Series Finals, which will serve as the first-round qualifiers for the 2020 Olympics.
The FIH also confirmed the composition of the pools for the six Finals scheduled between April and June this year. Hosts India will compete against Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, United States and Uzbekistan. Asian champions Japan are the only to really test India's strength. The ten-day event will be held from June June 6 to 16.
Other two venues are, Kuala Lumpur where Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Italy, Vanuatu and Wales beside hosts Malaysia will compete. The event will be held from April 26 to May 4.
Le Touquet in France will host Chile, Egypt, Ireland, South Korea, Scotland, Singapore and Ukraine from June 13 to 23. This is the toughest pool and France, which impressed in the World Cup will have stiff challenges from Korea and Ireland.
Two top teams from each pool progressed to the next round.
The women's team, however, will be battling it out at Hiroshima with Chile, Fiji, Mexico, Poland, Russia and Uruguay from June 15-23.
Three pools of eight teams each for women as well as men will compete in these events. No less than 14 teams qualified for the FIH Series Finals played either at the women or the men's World Cups last year.
Canada, China, France, India, Ireland, Malaysia and South Africa all competed at the men's World Cup in Bhubaneswar last month, while India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, South Africa and Spain were in England last summer for the Vitality Hockey Women's World Cup in London.
FIH CEO Thierry Weil said: "We can't wait to see the FIH Series Finals to be played. The line-up of teams is quite impressive and the 'road to Tokyo' is at stake, which makes these six events even more attractive."
(With PTI inputs)
