Press Trust of India
New Delhi, August 29: Indian women’s hockey team will return to the Olympics after a long gap of 36 years as it qualified Saturday for next year’s Rio Games, courtesy England making it to the final of the ongoing EuroHockey Championships in London.
England’s semifinal victory over Spain, coming after the Netherlands’’win over Germany in the other semifinal 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 semifinals of the Unibet EuroHockey Championships in London, which ensured that the only teams — The Netherlands and England (as Great Britain) — who can now win the event have already qualified for Rio through the Hockey World League SemiFinals,” the FIH said in a statement.
Indian women’s hockey team last featured in an Olympics in the 1980 Moscow Games, where they finished at a respectable fourth position.
Hockey India applauded the historic achievement of the women’s hockey team. “It is a proud moment for Hockey India and the whole country. We have been waiting for this for the last 36 years and this achievement is the sweetest and the most memorable among all our previous feats in recent times,” HI President Narinder Batra said in a release.
