LAHORE, 20th May 2023: From May 23 to June 1, the best young Asian men’s hockey teams will compete in the Men’s Junior Asia Cup Salalah 2023, with three slots up for grabs in the forthcoming FIH Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The ten competing teams are divided into two pools, with Pool A consisting of Chinese Taipei, India, Japan, Pakistan, and Thailand. Oman would be joined in Pool B by Bangladesh, Korea, Malaysia, and Uzbekistan, according to a press release published here on Friday. Each pool stage team would face the other four teams in their pool once.
The top two teams in each pool will advance to the semifinals, while the third and fourth placed teams will fight for the 5-8 place classification. Teams placing fifth in both pools will compete head-to-head to avoid finishing tenth. The losing semifinalists will compete for bronze, with the two finalists and bronze medalists qualifying for the FIH Junior Hockey World Cup 2023. Malaysia has already qualified for the World Cup as the hosts, thus if Malaysia advances to the Junior Asia Cup semifinals, all three other teams that advance will also receive admittance into the World Cup.
From December 5 to 16, the FIH Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysia has been chosen to host the competition. Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain have qualified from Europe as the top five teams for the EuroHockey Junior Championship 2022.
Australia and New Zealand qualified for the Oceania Junior World Cup Qualifiers 2022 as well. South Africa and Egypt are the African qualifiers who will compete in the Junior Africa Cup in 2023. Argentina, Canada, and Chile are the three Pan American qualifiers. The three top Asian teams will round up the field of sixteen teams competing for the title at the FIH Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023.