Tokyo 2020: India Men and Women’s hockey team to face New Zealand and Netherlands respectively

The India men’s and women’s Hockey teams will kick start their campaign against New Zealand and the Netherlands respectively at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics coming up on July 25, 2020, as revealed by the Federation of International Hockey [FIH] on Tuesday.

Following the match Schedule of next year’s Olympics released by the FIH, both categories [men and women] of the Indian teams will begin their campaigns on the first day of the Hockey competitions.

After playing the eight-time champions-New Zealand in the men’s competition, India will face Australia who is ranked number one in the world rankings on July 26 before taking on Spain on the July 28, followed by the defending champions Argentina (July 29) and hosts Japan (July 31) in Group A.

On the other hand, the women’s team who are also in Group A will battle it out with Germany on July 27, before meeting Great Britain (July 29), Ireland (July 31), and South Africa (August 1).

The FIH also revealed that the men’s and women’s gold medal matches would take place on August 6th and 7th respectively.
The Indian men’s team who is ranked fifth on the world rankings had secured qualifications for the Tokyo Games after beating Russia 11-3 on aggregate in the Olympic qualifiers held in Bhubaneswar earlier this month.

The Indian women’s team are ranked ninth in the world rankings and had already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics beating the United States 6-5 on aggregate in the qualifiers held in Bhubaneswar early this month.

The match schedule of the Tokyo Olympic hockey tournaments was announced during a press briefing in Tokyo which the FIH Executive Board Member and IOC Olympic Solidarity Commission Member Tayyab Ikram was in attendance. Also present was Tokyo 2020 Sports Director Koji Murofushi and Japan’s Women’s Hockey national team player Seren Tanaka.

Written by:Olumide Akinnifesi