KUALA LUMPUR: The men’s and women’s national hockey teams have qualified on merit for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games on April 4-15.
Both teams made the cut as they are ranked in the top ten among Commonwealth countries on the men’s and women’s International Hockey Federation world rankings.
The men’s team are the World No 12 while the women’s team are ranked 22nd in the world.
The other countries who will have teams in both categories are Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Canada, Scotland, South Africa and Wales.
Pakistan will only have a team in the men’s category while Ghana will compete in the women’s event.
Australia have won all five editions of the men’s event since the sport was introduced in the 1998 KL edition.
In the women’s category, Australia won it in 1998, 2006 (Melbourne), 2010 (New Delhi) and 2014 (Glasgow). India won gold in 2002 (Manchester).
Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) deputy president Dr S. Shamala said: “We expected both teams to make the cut.”
“The Commonwealth Games is a perfect platform for both teams to prepare for the Indonesia Asian Games (Aug 18- Sept 2).
“We hope both teams will do well in the Commonwealth Games,” said Shamala.
MHC have set a target for the men’s team to win the Asian Games gold medal and a podium finish for their women’s side.
The men’s team best performance in the Commonwealth Games was silver medal in 1998 while Malaysia’s best finish in the women’s competition was sixth in 2006.
In 2014, the men’s and women’s teams finished seventh in their respective category.