With a 100 days until the Rio 2016 Olympic Games begin, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has confirmed the official match schedules for the men’s and women’s hockey events.
Running from 6-19 August at Deodoro Olympic Park in Rio De Janiero, Brazil, the events will feature 12 men’s and 12 women’s international hockey teams who qualified through the Hockey World League and Continental Championships.
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Two pitches will host both events and, for the first time in an Olympic hockey competition, quarter-Finals will be played. The top four teams from each pool will qualify for the knock-out stages.
The winners of the quarter-Finals will qualify for the Semi-Finals which will determine who will play in the gold and bronze medal matches. The men’s medal matches are scheduled for Thursday 18 August and the women’s the following day, on Friday 19 August.
Asian Champions India are drawn in a group featuring reigning European Champions Netherlands, Olympic champions Germany and Pan American Games champions Argentina.
The Indian Men’s tournament will open with a campaign against first-time qualifiers Ireland on the 6th of August.
Their first test will come against Germany on August 8 before they take on the Netherlands on August 11. India will hope to exact the same performance that won them bronze at the HWL Finals in Raipur against the European Champions.
On the women’s side, India are in a group featuring the Argentina and Australia. The women team, who have qualified for the Olympics after 36 years, will take on Japan in their opener on the 7th of August.
Talking about the schedule, Men’s team coach Roelant Oltmans said, “We will play the three top teams of our group back to back. Instead of looking at that as a daunting task we think it’s a great opportunity. It’ll help us keep improving our level, and positive results will give us more confidence from game to game.”
Speaking about the schedules, Michael Green, Chair of the FIH Athletes’ Committee, said: “The Olympic schedule is a complex jigsaw reflecting the desire to keep an equitable spread of times and pitch allocation for all teams across both genders alongside the specific needs of the global broadcasters.
“We believe this schedule will provide players, viewers and fans alike with an exciting Olympic hockey event to showcase and promote our sport across the world.”
