Kookburras to Play in Rio

Published On: 2 July 2015

The Australian men’s hockey team will qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games irrespective of where they finish in the top four of the Hockey World League (HWL) this week after they reached the semi-finals and India overcame Malaysia 3-2.

The Kookaburras will face Great Britain in the semi-final in Antwerp on Friday after both teams came through their quarter-final encounters on Wednesday.

India’s result guarantees the three other semi-finalists – Australia, Belgium and Great Britain – will all qualify for Rio.

As they have already qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games by virtue of winning the 2014 Asian Games, a top three finish for India in Antwerp will create an Olympic opening for the highest ranked of the fourth place finishers from two HWL Semi-Final events held in Buenos Aires and Antwerp.

Continental championship winners such as India, who also qualify through the World League, ‘hand back’ their World League qualification place with it rolled down to the next best non-qualifier, the best fourth placed team from the two World League competitions.

As Australia, Belgium and Great Britain are all ranked higher than Canada, who finished fourth in Buenos Aires, that place would go to whichever of those teams were to finish fourth in Antwerp.

If India finishes fourth, then only the top three from each competition will be confirmed for the Olympic Games at this stage. In Antwerp, that would mean Australia, Belgium and Great Britain secure the three automatic qualification places.

All four semi-finalists have also qualified for the World League Finals in India at the end of the year, to be joined by Germany, the Netherlands, Argentina and Canada.

In Wednesday’s quarter finals, the Kookaburras overcame Ireland 4-1 on Antwerp’s hottest day for more than 60 years while Great Britain saw off Pakistan, winning 2-1.

The other semi-final will pit India against Belgium after the hosts overcame France 5-4.

Australia and Great Britain met as recently as the middle of June in two World League warm-up matches. While Great Britain won the first contest 3-1 in London, the Kookaburras fought back in the second to win 6-1 at Bisham Abbey two days later.

The Kookaburras’ World League squad contains WAIS athletes; Fergus Kavanagh, Kiel Brown, Aran Zalewski and Tyler Lovell.

-HockeyAus