The Irish women's hockey team will begin their quest today in Valencia, Spain to become the first Irish team sport to qualify for the Olympic Games since London 1948. The men's hockey team will have the same aim later this month in Belgium.
Ireland competed in both the basketball and football events in 1948 but since then no team has managed to make it through to the Olympic finals.
Irish hockey for many years opted out of the Olympics because of the political situation in Ireland, but in recent years has attempted to qualify and came within a victory for London 2012 qualification.
Ireland faces South Africa today in their first match before playing Germany, Uruguay and the USA in their pool. The top three teams at the end of the tournament are guaranteed places at both the end-of-year Hockey World League Final, and the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Depending upon results in both World League events – Valencia and Antwerp – the fourth-placed teams may also have a strong chance of qualifying for Rio.
Ireland’s passage is tough as they are the second lowest ranked team in the pool. USA are ranked fifth in the world, Germany sixth, South Africa 11th, Uruguay 29th and Ireland 14th.
Pool A has Argentina, who are ranked third in the world, China at seven and Britain (England) ranked eighth. Host nation Spain is ranked 15th and 20th ranked Canada are also ranked lower than Ireland.
“The squad we have selected has flexibility with multiple players able to operate in more than one layer, physically fit to cope with the heat in Spain, and we feel these are the best performed athletes over the past 12 months” said Irish coach Darren Smith.
IRELAND: L Colvin, A Connery, N Daly, K Dillon, N Evans, M Frazer (C), E Gray, S McCay, A McFerran, H Matthews, A Meeke, K Mullan, Y O’Byrne, A O’Flanaghan, G Pinder, C Sargent, E Smyth, C Watkins. Non Travelling Reserves – E Beatty, C Brown, N Carroll, S Davis, D Duke. POOL MATCHES: June 10 Ireland v South Africa; June 11 Ireland v Germany; June 13 Ireland v Uruguay; June 16 Ireland v USA.
