KUALA LUMPUR: Belgium juniors hope to be as successful as their seniors - win the Junior World Cup (JWC) at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil from Dec 5-16.
The Belgium senior team won the 2018 World Cup and 2021 Tokyo Olympics gold.
Their juniors' best result in the JWC in eight appearances since 1979. was second in 2016 in Lucknow, India,
In the last JWC in Bhubaneswar, India, in 2021, Belgium were sixth.
For the JWC in Kuala Lumpur, Belgium are drawn in Group D with European champions the Netherlands, Pakistan and New Zealand.
Belgium coach Jeroen Baart said: "We have quality players. The juniors are inspired by the success of the senior team.
"We were third in the European Junior Championship last year behind champions Netherlands and Germany. Since then we have trained hard and are well prepared.
"We will face strong challenge from Netherlands, Pakistan and New Zealand in our group but we should qualify for the quarter-finals. From the knockout stage, we will take one match at a time.
"I believe teams like Netherlands, Germany, Australia, India and Argentina are the frontrunners to win the title," said Baart, whose brother, Sander Baart, represented Netherlands 200 times and won silver in two World Cups (2014 and 2018) and silver in the 2012 Olympics.
Belgium team manager David Prinsen Geerligs said Malaysia's National Hockey Stadium is awesome and hopes the venue will bring them luck.