Africa-Press – Namibia. NAMIBIAN hockey received great news over the weekend when it was confirmed that the Indoor Hockey World Cup will now take place in Pretoria, South Africa in February next year.
The World Cup was originally scheduled to take place in Liege, Belgium in February this year, but was cancelled due to Covid.
“It is with great regret that the International Hockey Federation and Hockey Belgium are forced to cancel the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup Belgium 2022, which was scheduled to take place in Liège from February 2 to 6, 2022, after two years of intensive preparatory work,” the FIH said in January.
On Saturday, however, the FIH announced that the World Cup will now take place after all.
“South Africa was confirmed as host of the next FIH Hockey Indoor World Cup, which was postponed due to Covid-related reasons. The event will be staged in Pretoria from 5 to 11 February 2023,” it said.
Namibia’s women’s team qualified directly for the Indoor World Cup as continental champions, after beating South Africa in the final of the Africa Cup in Durban last year, while Namibia’s men’s team qualified by default.
South Africa won the Africa Cup after beating Namibia in the final, but Namibia and the United States received late call-ups in September last year after Australia and New Zealand withdrew due to Covid concerns.
Australia have now, however, been added to both the men and women’s entrants, while Russia’s men’s team and Belarus’ women’s team have been dropped after they were suspended by the FIH due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine, however, have qualified and will compete in the women’s world cup.
The secretary general of the Namibia Hockey Union, Jens Unterlerchner said it was great news for Africa.
“It’s great news that the world cup is back on and especially that it’s in Pretoria, because now we will be able to showcase international hockey in Africa.
“The FIH originally cancelled the tournament, but said that if some federation could come up with a suitable venue which fits into the FIH calendar they could still host it and South Africa then applied and their bid has been accepted,” he said.
“We only heard about it on Saturday so we have been caught off guard a bit, but we will now work on preparations and a road map towards the world cup,” he added.
Namibia’s men’s coach Trevor Cormack said it was great news.
“I’m very excited that the Indoor World Cup is back on and that Namibia’s men got an invitation. Im also super excited that it will be held in South Africa for the first time and that four African teams will be competing,” he said.
“With South Africa hosting the world cup, this may give us an advantage, from a travelling and supporters point of view. The announcement gives us enough time to prepare sufficiently for the event,” he added.
The teams that will compete at the 2023 Indoor Hockey World Cup are as follows:
Men: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Iran, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Netherlands, South Africa, United States.
Women: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Netherlands, South Africa, Ukraine, United States.
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