Six more teams have qualified for the inaugural Hockey5s World Cup following the African qualifiers.
Namibia won the women’s title, and along with Zambia and South Africa, qualified for Oman 2024.
Meanwhile hosts Egypt took gold in the men’s competition and were joined by Nigeria and Kenya in qualifying for next January’s event.
The FIH Hockey5s World Cup Oman 2024 is a 16-team tournament that will be the first World Cup played in the Hockey5s format.
Apart from hosts Oman, there will be three teams each from Africa, Asia, Europe, Pan America and Oceania.
Netherlands, Belgium and Poland have already qualified for the men’s World Cup from Europe and will be joined by Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya from Africa.
Zambia, Namibia and South Africa are the first teams to qualify for the Women’s World Cup.
The FIH Hockey5s World Cup will be held in Muscat, Oman in January 2024.
It will set up a pinnacle tournament in the Hockey5s format that will run as a quadrennial event.
The surprising thing was that Africa’s top men’s hockey team, South Africa failed to qualify. The lost in group stages to Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya. They finished last and could not even make it to the knockout stages.
A fantastic opportunity for these smaller hockey nations to play on the World stage – just brilliant!