The qualifying road for the Irish Men’s hockey team to the 2016 Rio Olympics was outlined during the week.
Ireland who agonisingly missed out qualifying for London 2012 are set to travel to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in February 2015 for round two of the World League.
The League is the International Hockey Federation’s (FIH) method of finding its 12 qualifiers for the Games over the course of four rounds of competition.
By virtue of Ireland’s top 16 world ranking, they do not have to take part in the first round of the competition.
Three sides will progress to round three. Ireland are top seeds with Canada and USA – whom Ireland have beaten all nine times they have met – the only other sides guaranteed to be in Lancaster, with four lower-ranked sides qualifying from round one. So they are expected to qualify for next stage.
It will be the first time Ireland will have played in the US since the 1989 Intercontinental Cup when the Irish Hockey Team, which included Olympic medallists Stephen Martin, Billy McConnell and Jimmy Kirkwood, qualified for the 1990 World Cup in Lahore, Pakistan under Dutchman Cees Kopelaar.
