The EuroHockey Nations Championship II for both the men and women has wrapped up the round robin phase and will move into playoff mode this weekend. The winners will be crowned on Sunday, August 14.
The event features the European nations, not invited to Monchengladbach, battling for a spot in the Olympic Qualification Tournaments. Four teams on both the men’s and women’s sides will move onto the Olympic Qualification Tournaments, which will be held in early 2012.
On the men’s side, Poland and the Czech Republic came out on top of a three-way tie in their preliminary round group and have moved onto the semi-final round. The Czechs will take on Scotland, which topped its preliminary round group, while Poland will take on Austria. Poland the Czech Republic and Austria have earned a spot in the Olympic qualifier, although their exact placement will not be known until the other continents have completed their continental championships.
Under the Great Britain agreement, only the results of England will be taken into account in the Olympic Qualification process. Therefore, since Scotland will finish in a top-four spot at the EuroNations Championship II, the final slot will go to the next-ranked team, excluding Wales, which is bound by the same agreement. this means that one of the four teams in the placement round can also make it to the Olympic Qualification Tournaments.
For the women, Belarus and Russia ran away with the top spots in their preliminary round groups. Unbeaten Belarus will take on France in its semi-final game, while Russia will face Scotland. Belarus, France and Russia will move onto the Olympic Qualification Tournaments, and placement round will be equally important in the women’s tournament to determine the fourth qualification team.
There will be three Olympic Qualification tournaments held for the men and three for the women.
