The Irish men’s team are currently in South Africa preparing for the first of their Olympic qualifiers and are ranked 15th in the world.
The South African men, who are ranked two places above Ireland at 13, have in the first two matches drawn and lost 5-4 to Ireland.
The first Olympic hurdle for Ireland men begins on February 28th in San Diego, USA. The qualification process is a a truly global event.
If Ireland can qualify from San Diego they will enter into the next round of matches, where the six highest qualified nations from a number of tournaments will go to Rio.
In Rio 2016 they would join the host country Brazil and the five continental champions for a 12-team Olympic event.
Congratulations to the Ireland Women’s Team who have moved up in World Rankings to fourteenth place. The rise in ranking is a result of an excellent 2014 season for our national squad, beating Korea (9th), South Africa (11th) and Belgium (12th) over the last twelve months.
This jump has come at a pivotal time for the Irish Ladies as they prepare for the Olympic qualifier process with World League 2 taking place in Dublin from March, 14th to 22nd. They must finish in the top three of the tournament to progress on to World League 3 and Olympic qualification.
All the very best to Irish Hockey in their bid to qualify for Rio.