Indian women hockey team qualify for Rio 2016 olympics after 36 years...

Sai Jai · 29 Aug 2015

New Delhi: Indian women's hockey
team will return to the Olympics
after a long gap of 36 years as it
qualified for next year's Rio Games,
courtesy England making it to the
final of the ongoing EuroHockey
Championships in London.
England's semi-final victory over
Spain, coming after the Netherlands'
win over Germany in the other semi-
final in the European Championships
freed one quota place as both the
finalists have already qualified for
the Olympic Games.
India took the quota place on the
basis of its fifth-place finish in the
women's Hockey World League
Semifinals in Antwerp, Belgium last
month.
International Hockey Federation (FIH)
confirmed that Indian women's team
has qualified for the Rio Games.
"India qualified after England
defeated Spain in the semi-finals of
the Unibet EuroHockey
Championships in London, which
ensured that the only team

Sai Jai · 29 Aug 2015

The
Netherlands and England (as Great
Britain) -- who can now win the
event have already qualified for Rio
through the Hockey World League
Semi-Finals," the FIH said in a
statement.
"The winner of the EuroHockey
Championships will qualify for the
2016 Olympics as European
continental champions, opening up a
further qualification spot which India
secure as the team who ranked
highest at the Hockey World League
Semi-Finals not already qualified," it
said.
Indian women's team now joins nine
other teams, who have already
qualified for 2016 Rio Games -- Korea
as Asian Games champions,
Argentina as Pan Am Games
champions and Great Britain, China,
Germany, Netherlands, Australia,
New Zealand and the USA through
the Hockey World League Semi-
Finals.
Indian women's hockey team last
featured in an Olympics in the 1980
Moscow Games, where they finished
at a respectable fourth position. Read more: http://www.ndtv.com