The Hockey shoot-out drama: 10 years since penalty strokes replaced

It is a decade ago this month since the FIH introduced the penalty shoot-out rule in the sport at the Women’s Champions Challenge 2. And so the novelty of running from the 23m line and eight seconds to try and score was implemented.

Not that it was a totally new ruling. It had been trialled in the Australian Hockey League 20 years ago while it was used in the Euro Hockey League from 2007. The Women’s Challenge 2 tournament was, though, the first time it was made a rule on a global scale.

There were some objections, notably from Pakistan, who had argued that the sport didn’t need yet another rule introduction from the 100 or so hockey had tinkered with since the 1960s.