2014 Champions Trophy winners Argentina line up in Pool A with London 2012 Olympic Bronze medallists Great Britain
USA and Germany head the challengers in Pool B
Round 2 surprise package Uruguay join the nations in Pool B
International Hockey Federation (FIH) have released the pools and match schedule for the women’s Hockey World League Semi-Final in Valencia, Spain.
The Hockey World League Semi-Final is a qualifier for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games with three guaranteed places available to the ten teams competing in the Semi-Final leg in Spain.
The Hockey World League Semi-Final in Valencia takes place from 10-21 June 2015 in Spain’s third largest city and features an extraordinary line-up. The ten teams making up the pools are a mixture of automatic qualifiers courtesy of their world rankings (at time of entry), the host and the teams who join via their qualification success in Round 2 of the Hockey World League.
Pool A features 2014 Champions Trophy winners Argentina alongside London 2012 Olympic Bronze medallists Great Britain, host nation Spain, China and Round 2 qualifier Canada. While Pool B includes the high flying USA team with Germany, South Africa and two qualifiers from Round 2 – Ireland and Uruguay.
The opening day of the event (Wednesday 10 June) will feature eight of the ten teams taking part and the pool matches will be spread over five days. The event will conclude with the finals and play offs on Sunday 21 June.
FIH President, Leandro Negre said: “We are greatly looking forward to the Semi-Final event in Valencia. Spain always has amazing crowds and we know there will be great support for the home nation. With Olympic qualification at stake, we expect an action-packed and competitive event.”
RFEH President Santiago Deó Valera said: “The Olympic qualifying event in Valencia is not far away. We are looking forward to what will be a great event, which we are sure everybody will enjoy, with excellent play from all participating teams and where we hope that our National team achieves the classification for participating in Rio.“
Participating Teams
Pool A Pool B
Argentina USA
China Germany
Great Britain South Africa
Spain Ireland
Canada Uruguay
