BHUBANESWAR 29-Aug-2015
Indian women hockey team will return to the Olympics after a long gap of 36 years as it qualified today for the 2016 Rio Games, courtesy England making it to the final of the ongoing EuroHockey Championships in London.
The semifinal victory by England over Spain and that by Netherlands over Germany in the European Championships freed one quota place as both the finalists have already qualified for the Olympic Games.
India took the quota place on the basis of its fifth-place finish in the women`s Hockey World League Semifinals in Antwerp, Belgium last month. International Hockey Federation (FIH) confirmed that Indian women team has qualified for the Rio Games.
Indian women team now join nine other teams, who have already qualified for the Rio Games -- Korea as Asian Games champions, Argentina as Pan Am Games champions and Great Britain, China, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and the USA through the Hockey World League Semi-Finals.
Indian women hockey team last featured in an Olympics in the 1980 Moscow Games, where they finished at a respectable fourth position.
