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With a goal to win fourth gold medal at the prestigious FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup, three-time champion the Netherlands team led by skipper Thierry Brinkman was the first international team to reach Odisha on Wednesday. The 2023 FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup will commence on January 13 in Rourkela and Bhubaneswar.
The European side will practice in Bhubaneswar before traveling to Rourkela on January 10 and will face Malaysia in their first preliminary match of the tournament on January 14.
The Netherlands is clubbed in Pool C, along with Chile, Malaysia and New Zealand. Dutch team coach Jeroen Delmee said his team will fight it out to secure a victory while taking one game at a time.
“Our first target is to reach the quarterfinals and then make the semis. We will then see how things go in the final,” the Dutch team coach said. “Of course, if we reach the final then we will hope to turn it around and win the tournament.”
The Netherlands have won the FIH World Cup in 1973, 1990, and 1998. However, they finished runners-up in 1978, 1994, 2014 and 2018 editions.
To date, the Dutch team have won nine medals at the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cups, including three golds, four silver and two bronze medals.
Australia have won a total of 10 medals, including three gold medals at the FIH men’s hockey World Cups, the most amongst all competing nations. Australia also won two silvers and five bronze medals. They last won the World Cup title in 2014.
As per FIH statistics of the Men’s World Cup, Pakistan, the champions of the inaugural edition in 1971 have been the most successful Asian side, winning as many as four World Cup titles. They also won two silver medals.
Pakistan’s fourth gold medal at the World Cup was won in 1994 in Sydney. Germany have won two gold medals.
While India and Belgium are the other two nations having won one gold medal each. India won the World Cup in 1975, while Belgium won the most recent 2018 edition.
