2018–19 Women's Hockey Series Explained

Tournament:2018–19 Women's Hockey Series
Venues:10
Cities:10
Teams:42
Confederations:5
Champions:

Matches:130
Goals:801

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

See main article: 2018–19 Women's Hockey Series Open.

DatesLocationTeamsHockey series finals
quotas
Hockey series finals
qualifier(s)
5–10 June 2018Salamanca, Mexico



2
23 June – 1 July 2018Singapore




2
6–8 July 2018Wattignies, France


3

13–18 August 2018Port Vila, Vanuatu


1
21–26 August 2018Vilnius, Lithuania



3

18–23 September 2018Santiago, Chile




2
7–9 December 2018Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

1
1
Total15

Finals events

See 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]

DatesLocationTeams QualifiedOlympic Qualification
Events Quotas
Olympic Qualification
Event Qualifiers
By RankingFrom Hockey
Series Open
8–16 June 2019Banbridge, Ireland





2
15–23 June 2019Hiroshima, Japan





1
19–27 June 2019Valencia, Spain





2
Total5

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Pakistan and Vanuatu to host Hockey Series Open events. FIH.ch. 18 May 2018.
  2. http://www.fih.ch/events/open-series/about-hockey-series/questions-and-answers/ Hockey Series Q&A
  3. http://www.fih.ch/media/8997773/180406-ioc-approved-qualification-system.pdf Olympic qualification system
  4. Web site: Pools and venues confirmed for 2019 FIH Series Finals . fih.ch . International Hockey Federation . 23 October 2018 . 23 October 2018.