2018–19 Women's Hockey Series

2018–19 Women's Hockey Series

Tournament details
Teams	42 (from 5 confederations)
Venue(s)	10 (in 10 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	South Korea  India  Spain
Tournament statistics
Matches played	130
Goals scored	801 (6.16 per match)

The 2018–19 Women's Hockey Series was the inaugural season of the Hockey Series, a field hockey championship for women's national teams. The tournament started in June 2018 and finished in June 2019.[1]

Format

The Hockey Series was open to national teams that were not playing in the Pro League.

The Hockey Series took place in two rounds, the Open and the Finals. The nine highest-ranked teams in the FIH World Rankings (as of 9 June 2017) skipped the Open and advanced directly to the Finals. All other national teams played in the Hockey Series Open, which features six regional events with up to six teams each. Fifteen teams qualified from the Hockey Series Open to the Hockey Series Finals, for a total of 24 teams in the Finals. Those teams played in three events, with eight teams per event (three automatic qualifiers and five that advanced from the Open).[2]

The top two placed teams in each of the Finals events qualified for the 2019 FIH Olympic Qualifiers.[3] In this qualification event, they were joined by the top four placed teams from the Pro League, and the two highest ranked teams not already qualified. The teams were drawn and played a two-legged tie to determine six qualified nations for the Olympic Games.

Schedule

Open events

Main article: 2018–19 Women's Hockey Series Open

Dates	Location	Teams	Hockey series finals quotas	Hockey series finals qualifier(s)
5–10 June 2018	Salamanca, Mexico	Canada  Guatemala  Mexico  Panama  Puerto Rico	2	Canada  Mexico
23 June – 1 July 2018	Singapore	Hong Kong  Indonesia  Kazakhstan  Malaysia  Singapore  Thailand	2	Malaysia  Thailand
6–8 July 2018	Wattignies, France	Austria  Belarus  France  Russia	3	Belarus  France  Russia
13–18 August 2018	Port Vila, Vanuatu	Fiji  Solomon Islands  Tonga  Vanuatu	1	Fiji
21–26 August 2018	Vilnius, Lithuania	Czech Republic  Lithuania  Turkey  Ukraine  Wales	3	Czech Republic  Ukraine  Wales
18–23 September 2018	Santiago, Chile	Bolivia  Brazil  Chile  Paraguay  Peru  Uruguay	2	Chile  Uruguay
7–9 December 2018	Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	Namibia  Zambia  Zimbabwe	1	Namibia
			1	Singapore
Total			15

Finals events

Main article: 2018–19 Women's FIH Series Finals

The pools and venues were announced on 23 October 2018 with one team from Africa still to qualify.[4]

Dates	Location	Teams Qualified		Olympic Qualification Events Quotas	Olympic Qualification Event Qualifiers
		By Ranking	From Hockey Series Open
8–16 June 2019	Banbridge, Ireland	Ireland  South Korea  Scotland	Czech Republic  France  Malaysia  Singapore  Ukraine	2	Ireland  South Korea
15–23 June 2019	Hiroshima, Japan	India  Japan[a]  Poland	Chile  Fiji  Mexico  Russia  Uruguay	1[b]	India
19–27 June 2019	Valencia, Spain	Italy  Spain  South Africa	Belarus  Canada  Namibia  Thailand  Wales	2	Canada  Spain
Total				5

Notes

1. Japan cannot qualify for the Olympic Qualifiers because they have already qualified as hosts and winners of the Asian Games.
2. Because Japan finished in the top two and cannot qualify for the Olympic Qualifiers only one team qualified.

References

1. "Pakistan and Vanuatu to host Hockey Series Open events". FIH.ch. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
2. Hockey Series Q&A
3. Olympic qualification system
4. "Pools and venues confirmed for 2019 FIH Series Finals". fih.ch. International Hockey Federation. 23 October 2018. Retrieved 23 October 2018.