The inaugural FIH World Cup Hockey5s is in Oman in Jan 2024. The Oceania continental qualifying event has 3 qualifying spots up for each grade Women and Men.
Seven National Federations are participating:
Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. Unfortunately, Samoa has had to withdraw due to visa issues and the high costs of travel but they are now focussing on the Pacific Games in late November.
Each team has 10 players (2 Goalkeepers and 8 field players) and they will play off through a round robin series ( Mon -Thurs ) followed by semi finals and then the medal and ranking round which will identify the qualifiers. This is exciting as due to COVID pandemic there has been no Oceania events since Oceania Cup in Rockhampton in 2019.
The tournament is officiated by representatives from all the participating NAs. The team will be well led by Technical Delegate Scott O’Reilly (Aus) and Umpire Manager Paul Morrison (NZL).
The tournament will be streamed daily so NAs and interested supporters across the globe can follow the matches.
There have been real difficulties facing some of the member nations as they prepared to take part. Vanuatu had a cyclone early in the year which caused massive damage to many of the players homes, and to the pitch that they usually play on. Their flight scheduled was changed at the last minute and caused real anxiety not just the team but resulted in a match schedule change just as some of the teams were ready to depart. Visa costs are very high to enter Australia and that put all the pacific nations under real pressure.
The match schedule and the officials list are attached to the page.
