KUALA LUMPUR: The draw to determine which team will be Malaysia’s last hurdle to Tokyo, will be answered on Sept 9 at the International Hockey Federation (FIH) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The upcoming FIH Hockey Olympic qualifiers draw will be conducted by the chief executive officer, Thierry Weil and will be streamed live on the FIH Facebook page at 1pm local time (8pm Malaysia time on Sept 9).
According to a statement issued by FIH, 14 men’s and 14 women’s teams will be involved in the draw.
The FIH Hockey Olympic qualifiers will each feature two nations playing two back-to-back matches, with nations drawn to play each other based on their rankings at the end of the last 2018/2019 Continental Championship, namely the Oceania Cup (Sept 8).
The draw will be done with the top three ranked team drawn at random to play at home against one of the teams ranked 12th to 14th, while the teams ranked 4th to 7th will be drawn at random to play at home against one of the teams ranked 8th to 11th.
FIH will confirm all the teams involved in the draw, as well as their final ranking order, on Sept 8 after the publication of FIH World Rankings, following the completion of the Oceania Cup. – Bernama
