Former Olympic champions India will begin their campaign as they meet formidable Germany in their opening match in themen’s Hockey Champions Trophy will take place at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in England from June 10 to 17.
Hosts Great Britain, currently ranked fourth in the FIH World Rankings (based on England’s position), get their campaign started against the world’s top ranked team – reigning World Cup and World League champions Australia. In the third match on Day 1 will be between Belgium and Korea, according to the location, teams and scheduled announced by International Hockey Federation.
Some mouth-watering action then gets June 11 off to a flyer as reigning Olympic and defending champions Germany (ranked third) go head to head against Hero Hockey World League Final 2015 runners-up Belgium (ranked fifth).
Other schedule highlights include a rerun of the 2014 Hero Hockey Champions Trophy semi-final between Germany and Australia on June 13, before the all-Asian derby between 2014 Asian Games champions India (ranked seventh) and 2014 Champions Challenge winners Korea (ranked ninth) takes place the following day.
India will face Germany in Champions Trophy on June 10
The round-robin games will conclude on June 16 before the classification games begin the next day, with the final taking place at 20:15 on June 17.
As a result, sports fans will now be able to experience two weeks of action-packed, world-class hockey, with the women’s Hockey Champions Trophy taking place immediately afterwards, from 18-26 June.
This year’s men’s showcase event will see Australia, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, India and Korea go head to head as they battle it out to be crowned the best of the best as Hockey Champions Trophy winners.
Speaking about this announcement FIH CEO Kelly Fairweather said: “Following the hugely successful 2012 Olympic Games and more recently the Unibet EuroHockey Championships held in this venue we know that England Hockey and all of their partners will truly embrace the FIH Hockey Revolution’s vision of creating innovative and exciting events for our fans. This is key to our aim of making hockey a global game that inspires the next generation.”
Indian Hockey Captain Sardar Singh giving a hug to Raghunath
He continued: “This is the first FIH event to be held here as part of a three event series in addition to the 2017 men’s Hockey World League Semi-Final and the women’s Hockey World Cup in 2018. We are reaching out to sports fans and asking them to join us, particularly this year as we get the Rio Olympic festivities underway right here in the legacy venue in London’s Olympic Park.”
With the line-ups and location now set for both the men’s and women’s Hockey Champions Trophies, the stage is set for two truly epic competitions.
These will be the last major international hockey events before many of these teams meet again at the Rio 2016 Olympics. With the matches taking place in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, host of the 2012 Games, the Hockey Champions Trophy will officially kick off the sport’s Olympic celebrations.
Schedule:
June 10: Germany vs India; Belgium vs Korea; Great Britain vs Australia.
June 11: Germany vs Belgium, India vs Great Britain, Australia vs Korea.
June 13: Korea vs Great Britain, Germany vs Australia, India vs Belgium.
June 14: India vs Korea, Australia vs Belgium, Great Britain vs Germany.
June 16: Australia vs India, Korea vs Germany, Great Britain vs Belgium.
June 17: 5th-6th place, 3rd-4th place, Ist and 2nd place matches.
