Hockey: Teams learn Olympic recipe

By Terry Maddaford

The path to next year's Olympic hockey tournaments may not be quite as rocky as the New Zealand men's and women's teams might have feared.

The Jan Borren-coached women's team must finish in the top five at the March-April 10-team Milton Keynes tournament in England to join the five automatic qualifiers in Sydney.

There will be the chance of revenge for New Zealand, the Commonwealth Games bronze medallists, who face Great Britain, Japan, China and Russia.

At last year's Kuala Lumpur Games, New Zealand lost their opening game to England, the basis of the Great Britain side, and with that any realistic chance of playing in the final.

The British have since won bronze at the 1999 European Cup and will have the home advantage.

New Zealand, ranked sixth in the world, beat the 11th-ranked Chinese in a recent home series and would be expected to challenge for a top-two finish in their pool and with it automatic Olympic qualification.

The two third-placed teams will have a sudden-death playoff for the last qualifying spot.

The other pool for the March 24-April 2 tournament will be contested by Germany, India, Ireland, Spain and the United States.

The 10th-ranked New Zealand men play in pool A of the Japanese-hosted tournament from March 9 to 20 against Belgium, Great Britain, Japan, Korea and Poland.

Korea, Japan and Great Britain pose the major threats to Kiwi hopes.

Britain are, like New Zealand, on the comeback trail and will play a three-test series here in January. As England, they won bronze at the Nations Cup and 1998 Commonwealth Games and finished fifth at June's Champions Trophy in Brisbane.

Japan, fourth in the Asian Games, shared a test series with New Zealand here earlier in the year 1-1, with two games drawn.

Korea will be no easybeats. They are ranked seventh in the world and missed the direct route to the Olympics when upset by India in the final of the Asian Games last December.

Korea beat New Zealand 5-1 at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in April.

Argentina, Belarus, Malaysia, Pakistan, Spain and Switzerland will play in pool B in the Osaka tournament.

Five teams will qualify for Sydney 2000.