Men’s Hockey Asia Cup: Arch-rivals India and Pakistan are in the same group; To meet on May 27th

MUMBAI, May 19 (IANS) Arch-rivals India and Pakistan are drawn into the same group for the 10-team AFC Youth Championship 2023 to be played in Salalah, Oman from May 23 to June 1. Meet on May 27 in a Pool-A match.

Asia’s best youth hockey teams will compete in the continent’s premier youth event for the title and the top three finishers at the upcoming 2023 FIH Youth Hockey World Cup, scheduled to take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The ten participating teams were drawn into two groups, with Group A featuring Chinese Taipei, India, Japan, Pakistan and Thailand. Oman, who hosts Group B, will join Bangladesh, Korea, Malaysia and Uzbekistan.

Each team in the pool stage will play the other four teams in its pool once.

The top two teams in both pools will advance to the semi-finals, while the third and fourth place teams will compete for seeding places 5 to 8. The fifth place teams in both pools will compete head to head to avoid finishing in tenth place.

The losing semi-finalists will play in the bronze medal match, the two finalists and the bronze medalists for the FIH Junior FIH Hockey World Cup 2023. Malaysia, as the host nation, has already qualified for the World Cup, so if Malaysia enters the semi-finals of the FIH Hockey World Cup ( fih). In the Asian Junior Cup, all three other teams that qualified for the quarter-finals will enter the World Cup as well.

The Junior FIH Hockey World Cup 2023 will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from December 5 to 16, 2023. Malaysia has qualified to host the tournament.

Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and Spain qualified from Europe as the teams ranked in the top five for the EuroHockey Junior Championship 2022. Australia and New Zealand also qualified through Oceania qualifiers for the 2022 Junior World Cup. South Africa and Egypt are African qualifiers that finished first in Africa Youth Cup 2023. Argentina, Canada and Chile are the three Pan American qualifiers. The top three teams from Asia will complete the full pool of sixteen who will compete for the title at the 2023 Men’s Junior FIH Hockey World Cup.

In Salalah, the Indian youth team will start their campaign against Chinese Taipei on May 24 and will face Japan the next day. After a rest day, India will face Pakistan on May 27, and then cap off their Group A campaign with a match against Thailand on May 28.

Ian

BSK