Men's Jr Asia Cup Hockey: India eye title defense ahead of home World Cup next year
New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): The best junior men’s hockey teams from Asia will compete in the Men’s Junior Asia Cup 2024 in Muscat, Oman from November 26 to December 4, with six spots up for grabs in the upcoming FIH Junior World Cup 2025, to be played in India. The tournament with an expanded competition format will feature 24 teams for the very first time. India enter the tournament as defending champions after beating arch-rivals Pakistan 2-1 last year. They also hold the record for most titles with four (including 2023, 2015, 2008 and 2004) accolades to their name in the tournament. This time the team is led by captain Amir Ali and vice-captain Rohit while two-time Olympic bronze medallist PR Sreejesh is performing the head coach's role.
The ten participating teams have been split into two pools, with Pool A comprising Chinese Taipei, India, Japan, Korea and Thailand. In Pool B hosts Oman will be joined by Bangladesh, China, Malaysia and Pakistan. Each team in the pool stage will play the other four teams in their pool once. The top two teams in both pools will qualify for the semifinals, while the teams in third and fourth positions will compete for the 5-8 place classification. The teams finishing in the fifth place in both pools will go head-to-head to avoid finishing in the tenth place.
The losing semifinalists will play in the bronze medal match, with the two finalists and the bronze medalists qualifying for the FIH Junior Hockey World Cup 2025. India, as hosts, have already qualified for the World Cup, so if they finish within the top-6 positions in the event, then the seventh-placed team will also secure entry into the World Cup.
The FIH Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2025 will be played in India. As hosts, India have already qualified for the competition. Belgium, England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Austria and Switzerland have qualified from Europe. Argentina, Canada, and Chile have qualified from the Americas. Following the six qualifiers from the Junior Asia Cup, three more teams from Oceania and Africa (each) will qualify for the World Cup to complete the qualification process over the next few months.
