Oi Stadium to host 2020 Olympic hockey events

ISLAMABAD: In exactly 365 days, the XXXII Olympics will be officially opened, with the 2020 Games hockey tournaments getting underway 24 hours later in the brand new Oi Hockey Stadium in Tokyo, Japan.

Twenty-four nations — 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams — will battle it out to follow in the footsteps of the 2016 gold medallists Argentina (men) and Great Britain (women).

Who will join Japan’s men’s and women’s national teams, who have qualified both as hosts and Asian champions?

The qualification process is identical for the men’s and women’s event, works as follows:

1. All four winners of the remaining continental championships, which will be staged in Pan America, Africa, Europe and Oceania between July and September this year, will secure a direct berth to the 2020 Olympics.

2. The remaining seven places will be decided by the FIH Olympic qualifiers scheduled to take place at the end of October and early November. These events consist of teams that qualified via the FIH Pro League and the FIH Series Finals, with the line-up being completed by the highest ranked teams who did not qualify via either route.

The Oi Hockey Stadium is equipped with the most environmentally friendly and sustainable hockey turf yet produced by FIH official supplier, Polytan. The stadium will be inaugurated at the Ready Steady Tokyo Hockey Test event taking place next month in Japan’s capital city.