ISLAMABAD, May 19 (APP):The best young Asian men’s hockey teams would compete in the Men’s Junior Asia Cup Salalah 2023 from May 23 to June 1, with three spots up for grabs in the upcoming FIH Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023, to be played in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The ten participating teams have been split into two pools, with Pool A comprising Chinese Taipei, India, Japan, Pakistan and Thailand. In Pool B hosts Oman would be joined by Bangladesh, Korea, Malaysia and Uzbekistan, said a press release issued here on Friday.
Each team in the pool stage would play the other four teams in their pool once. The top two teams in both pools would qualify for the semi-finals, while the teams in third and fourth positions will compete for the 5-8 place classification.
The teams finishing in fifth place in both pools would go head-to-head to avoid finishing in tenth place.
The losing semi-finalists would play in the bronze medal match, with the two finalists and the bronze medalists qualifying for the FIH Junior Hockey World Cup 2023. Malaysia, as hosts, has already qualified for the World Cup, so if Malaysia enters the semifinals of the Junior Asia Cup, all the other three teams making it to the semi-finals would gain entry into the World Cup as well.
The FIH Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 would be played in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from December 5-16. Malaysia has qualified as the host of the competition. Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and Spain have qualified from Europe as the teams that were classified in the top-5 at the EuroHockey Junior Championship 2022.
Australia and New Zealand have also qualified through the Oceania Junior World Cup Qualifiers 2022. South Africa and Egypt are the qualifiers from Africa finishing as the top two teams at the Junior Africa Cup 2023. Argentina, Canada and Chile are the three qualifiers from Pan America. The three top teams from Asia would complete the full set of sixteen teams that will compete for the title at the FIH Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023.
