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Indian Women's Hockey team will look to cash in on home advantage to secure Paris Olympic quota. Image- News18
The fight to secure a Paris Olympic quota will begin on Saturday, with the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifier 2024 starting on Saturday at the Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Astro Turf Hockey Stadium in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
Also Read: Paris Olympics 2024: Indian athletes who qualified for the Paris 2024
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The eight teams in the field include world No. 5 Germany, Japan, Chile and the Czech Republic in Pool A, while hosts India have been placed in Pool B along with New Zealand, the United States and Italy. Only the top 3 teams in the tournament will get the Paris Olympic quota.
Trying to make it to the Olympics for the third consecutive time, the Savita-led Indian women's hockey team is optimistic about its chances. The Paris Olympics will be held from July 26 to August 11 this year.
The Indian team will start its campaign with a match against the United States on Saturday, followed by a match against New Zealand on January 14. After one day's rest, India will play Italy on January 16 while the semi-finals will be held on January 18 and the final on January 19. India had defeated America in the 2019 Olympic qualifiers and this time too it would like to repeat the same performance.
Putting behind the disappointment of finishing third at Asian Games, the Indian women's team will look to cash in on home advantage and secure a Paris Olympic quota. World number five Germany are the highest ranked team in the tournament, while India are a rung below in sixth.
New Zealand are ninth in the rankings chart, followed by Japan (11th), Chile (14th), US (15th), Italy (19th) and Czech Republic (25th).
Also Read: Asian Shooting Championships: Rhythm Sangwan achieves 16th Paris Olympic quota for India in shooting
In modern day hockey, rankings don't hold much significance. Since 1983, India and the US have played against each other 15 times, out of which the Americans came out victories on nine occasions and the Indians on just four with two matches ending in draws. Going by statistics, it won't be a cakewalk for the Indians and they will have to bring out their 'A' game to outwit the Americans.
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