20 Dec, 2024 While 2024 is drawing to a close, the FIH President mission to engage, empower and develop National Associations does not stop! Indeed, on the sidelines of the FIH World Youth Hockey5s Festival currently taking place in Ipoh, Malaysia, FIH President Tayyab Ikram had a very good interaction with delegates from the Malawi Hockey Association as well as the CEO of the Malawi National Sports Council, Dr Henry Mtupanyama Kamata. Malawi is one of the participating teams of this event, and the Malawi Hockey Association General Secretary, Geoffrey Biya, was delighted with this participation and very thankful to FIH and President Ikram for this opportunity. The Malawi National Sports Council CEO ensured to build a mini-stadium around the FIH-donated hockey pitch. In the future, Malawi also has a plan to build a Hockey5s pitch with the collaboration of FIH and the African Hockey Federation. A youth development programme will start in the country, with the collaboration of FIH, the African Hockey Federation and the Malawi Hockey Association. Additionally, exchange programmes will start for Malawi coaches and officials. FIH President Tayyab Ikram said: “The meeting touched upon a wide range of important topics for the growth of hockey in Malawi. I’d like to thank and congratulate the Malawi Hockey Association and the Malawi National Sports Council for their dedication and great work.” The FIH World Youth Hockey5s Festival runs from 16-21 December 2024 in Ipoh, Malaysia and involves 24 teams from 17 nations. Source: FIH.hockey

27 Nov, 2024 The International Hockey Federation (FIH), with the support of Olympic Solidarity, the Asian Hockey Federation, the Malaysian National Olympic Committee, the Malaysian Hockey Confederation and the Raja Ashman Shah Hockey Academy will be delivering the FIH World Youth Hockey5s Festival from 16-21 December 2024 in Ipoh, Malaysia. The project, made possible through the Olympic Solidarity Youth Athlete Development Programme, is supporting over 500 young athletes to participate in National Training Camps and the FIH World Youth Hockey5s Festival. 24 teams from 17 nations will participate in the programme including Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malawi, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Zambia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan, Brunei and Thailand. FIH President Tayyab Ikram said of the project: “This marks the first time the FIH has had the privilege to conduct the prestigious IOC Olympic Solidarity Youth Athlete Development Programme. This initiative is a significant investment in the future generations of emerging nations and will provide immense benefits to young athletes. What makes this programme particularly special is that it caters to two continents simultaneously, bringing them together under the guidance of our qualified experts. We are confident and hopeful that this initiative will play a vital role in ensuring the sustainable development in these regions. Regular follow-ups will be conducted as part of the FIH Empowerment and Engagement Strategy to ensure its success and impact. We also plan to expand this programme to remaining continents starting next year, enabling even broader participation and benefits. Our heartfelt gratitude goes to the IOC for their special initiative for emerging nations and NOCs, as well as to our gracious hosts in Ipoh and Malaysia for welcoming participants from two continents and supporting this meaningful endeavor.” The objective of the Olympic Solidarity Youth Athlete Development Programme is to offer assistance to National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to identify and train young athletes for youth competitions as part of the pathway to participation in the Youth Olympic Games. For this particular project, the offer is to support NOCs to access International Federation (IF) Training Opportunities. The programme is specifically for nations with a low representation level in the Olympic Games (based on Tokyo 2020). Boys and girls teams from the under 16 age groups, together with young leaders/umpires and team coaches will participate in National Training Camps in their home nation, and in the World Youth Hockey5s Festival in Ipoh. The Festival will include a range of learning opportunities for all participants, including classroom based workshops, pitch sessions and festival competition. FIH Academy Educators will facilitate all sessions in collaboration with National Coaches. FIH Head of Education Development Mike Joyce added: “The project is a great opportunity for us to support many of our smallest hockey nations with youth talent identification and development. The financial support provided to NOCs by Olympic Solidarity has made this fantastic project possible.” Source: FIH.hockey

27 January 2024 Lausanne, Switzerland: The Netherlands produced a clinical performance to beat India and claim the inaugural title as the women’s tournament at the FIH Hockey5s World Cup came to an end in Muscat, Oman on Saturday. In doing so the seemingly invincible Oranje added yet another trophy to their incredible collection which includes Olympic gold, world senior and junior titles, Indoor World Cup gold and the FIH Hockey Pro League title. Earlier in the day, Poland secured the bronze medal with a victory over South Africa while in the newly introduced Challenger Trophy, for the teams that didn’t make it through to the quarter-finals, it was the USA who prevailed to claim the title by defeating Namibia. Here is how the final pulsating day of action went down… A devastating first-half performance made all the difference for the Netherlands in their 7-2 victory over India in the final. The Dutch took the field without Noor de Baat, their captain and eventual player of the tournament, whose knee injury in the semi-final ruled her out of the final, but this only seemed to serve as extra motivation for her team. They scored early goals for the first time in the tournament, surging to a 2-0 lead in just four minutes and going into the break 6-0 up. India were much better in the second half and won that period 2-1, but there was simply no coming back from the earlier damage. Bente van der Veldt scored two of the Netherlands’ seven goals in the final to take her personal tally to 15, the second highest of the tournament.   Janneke van de Venne took a moment to reflect on the Dutch success: “We feel great as a team, we worked hard for this and we’re very proud that we did it today. It was such a tough journey but proud that we are here now. It’s really nice to play against all these countries, you play against countries you never play, so it’s really great to do this and to participate at the World [Cup].” In the bronze medal match, Poland impressed with their good structure to claim a 4-2 win against South Africa, who seemed to have run out of ideas and energy. Amelia Katerla scored all four goals for Poland and was ecstatic with their third-place finish at the tournament: “Great, that was our goal so we did it, we won it, so we are very happy. It is a huge success because we are more focused on Hockey5s and indoor at this moment, and it’s a small group which is participating in hockey anyway so it’s difficult for us to promote for example to Olympic Games or the bigger tournaments, that’s why these tournaments mean a lot to us.” Uruguay put in a devastating second half to run away 8-4 winners against Malaysia in the 5th-place playoff. The match got off to a blistering start, Uruguay going 2-0 up inside three minutes, Malaysia drawing level three minutes later, and the South Americans reclaiming the lead to go into the break leading 3-2. Teresa Viana put Malaysia to the sword in the second half, bagging six goals in the match and finishing the tournament as the top scorer with 19 in total. Ukraine were too good in their comfortable 6-0 win over New Zealand for 7th place, Karyna Leonova picking up another four goals to end the tournament with 10. Challenger Trophy  The USA were completely dominant in the Challenger Trophy playoff for 9th place, but they only managed a 2-0 victory due to yet another goalkeeping masterclass from Namibia’s excellent Petro Stoffberg. Abigail Burnett reflected on the USA’s performance at the World Cup: “I’m really excited that we won, it shows our determination as a team and our energy to keep fighting. We had a really hard pool, but I think we fought through it and I think back home it shows that we can compete here and that, even though we’re playing for the Challenger Trophy instead of the big trophy, we still worked hard.” Australia secured 11th place with an 8-3 win over Fiji with Madeline Dooley completing a hat-trick while Thailand claimed 13th spot with a 5-3 win over Paraguay. Carol Nakombe chalked up an impressive six goals and Loveness Mudenda added a hat-trick as Zambia crushed hosts Oman 11-3 to secure 15th spot.   Tournament awards: Gold medallists: NETHERLANDS Silver medallists: INDIA Bronze medallists: POLAND Runners-up of the Women’s Challenger Trophy: NAMIBIA Winners of the Women’s Challenger Trophy: USA Best Goalkeeper: Marta Kucharska (POL) Best Junior Player: Deepika Soreng (IND) Top Scorer (19): Teresa Viana (URU) Best Player: Noor De Baat (NED)   FIH Hockey5s World Cup, Oman – 27 January Result: Match 41 (W) Zambia 11 – 3 Oman Result: Match 42 (W) Thailand 5 – 3 Paraguay Result: Match 43 (W) Fiji 3 – 8 Australia Result: Match 44 (W) Namibia 0 – 2 USA Result: Match 45 (W) Ukraine 6 – 0 New Zealand Result: Match 46 (W) Uruguay 8 – 4 Malaysia Result: Match 47 (W) Poland 4 – 2 South Africa Result: Match 48 (W) Netherlands 7 – 2 India   Final positions: Netherland,  India, Poland, South Africa, Uruguay, Malaysia, Ukraine, New Zealand, United States, Namibia, Australia,  Fiji, Thailand, Paraguay, Zambia, Oman #Hockey5s #HockeyEquals #HockeyInvites For more information about FIH and hockey in general, please download the Watch.Hockey app or follow the FIH social media channels – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – and website.

27 January 2024 Lausanne, Switzerland: Upon the initiative of FIH President Tayyab Ikram, the second National Associations Summit took place today in Muscat, Oman, on the occasion of the first ever FIH Hockey5s World Cup! Around 35 National Associations were represented and discussed key strategic matters for the continued development of hockey worldwide. The FIH President opened the session by saying: “I made it clear right from the start of my mandate, that hockey stakeholders, in particular FIH, Continental Federations and National Associations, need to meet in person on a regular basis. This is absolutely crucial in order to understand each other, ‘feel’ each other and grow our sport together!” A central agenda item was the future strategy of FIH. Led under the banner “FIH Next Chapter: Innovate to Elevate”, this session focussed on topics such as empowerment and engagement of National Associations, exposure of the sport and understanding of the rules of hockey. As an example, Hockey Australia Vice President Pat Hall explained how Hockey Australia developed a strategy to grow hockey in the country towards the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. Another major topic was digitalisation, with a presentation titled “FIH Digital Power Play: Navigating the Digital Revolution” given by Dutch Hockey Association (KNHB) President Erik Klein Nagelvoort. Whilst hockey has embraced digital for a number of years, the potential ahead remains huge, especially when it comes to the use of data for monetisation. For this, the global hockey community has to work as one … “One Hockey”! President Ikram reported about his FIH activities and interactions, not only with Continental Federations and National Associations but also the IOC and the Olympic Movement at large, that are so important partners for hockey. The FIH Finances were presented to all session participants with full transparency. The FIH audited accounts are available here. With FIH taking its sustainability footprint very seriously, FIH’s global partner. Polytan gave an update on the latest development of non-watered turf – that is being used for the first time in an FIH event at the current FIH Hockey5s World Cup – and the Paris GT Zero turf – hockey’s first carbon zero turf – that will be in place at the upcoming Olympics. Furthermore, a detailed update on the activities of the Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee was given by the Chair of the Committee, Marijke Fleuren. Further information was shared about the FIH Centenary, the Olympic Games Paris 2024, Watch.Hockey and broadcast and commercial matters. “Similar to the previous National Association Summit, I’m really delighted with the level of information that has been shared, the constructive atmosphere that has prevailed and the unity that was shown during this event. Discussions were so insightful! I’m more than ever convinced that such interactions are extremely beneficial for our development, and that there is a strong determination from all hockey stakeholders to not only grow, but grow together”, the FIH President concluded. #HockeyInvites #HockeyEquals For more information about FIH and hockey in general, please consult FIH.hockey, follow the FIH social media channels – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – and download the Watch.Hockey app.

04 January, 2024 The FIH Hockey5s World Cup Oman 2024 begins on 24 January. With new competing nations and a format never associated with a World Cup so far, the event ushers in a new era for international hockey. The inaugural edition of the Hockey5s World Cup will see participation from across the globe with 16 men’s and 16 women’s teams, from across 5 continents, competing for the title of the first ever Hockey5s World Champions. Muscat will provide a picturesque backdrop as the women’s competition will begin the proceedings, starting from 24 January, with the finals to be played on 27 January. The men’s competition will begin right after, starting on 28 January, with the medal matches slated for 31 January. The teams were all placed into their respective pools during the draw ceremony, held on 3 September 2023: Women: Pool A: Fiji, Malaysia, Netherlands, Oman Pool B: Australia, South Africa, Ukraine, Zambia Pool C: India, Namibia, Poland, United States Pool D: New Zealand, Paraguay, Thailand, Uruguay Men: Pool A: Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland Pool B: Egypt, India, Jamaica, Switzerland Pool C: Australia, Kenya, New Zealand, Trinidad & Tobago Pool D: Fiji, Malaysia, Oman, United States At the end of the pool stage, the two top teams in each pool will proceed to the quarterfinals and stay in the hunt for the title of the first ever Hockey5s World Champions. The bottom two teams however will play for the new ‘Challenger Trophy’ introduced upon an initiative from FIH President Tayyab Ikram, as a sign of encouragement for all teams. With six nations playing their first ever FIH World Cup – Fiji, Jamaica, Oman, Paraguay, Thailand, Zambia -, the additional silverware will keep all 16 teams in the hunt for success, even if they can’t make it into the quarterfinals of the event. The FIH Hockey5s World Cup will begin on 24 January at 08:00 local time, as Australia take on Ukraine in the opening encounter of the women’s competition. There will be 15 more matches from the Women’s World Cup on opening day, as all 16 teams will play two of their pool matches on day 1. All information about the event, including teams, schedule, ticketing or venue, can be found here. All matches from the FIH Hockey5s World Cup Oman 2024 will be streamed live (and available on-demand) on the Watch.Hockey app*. Fans can purchase the FIH+ Pass on Watch.Hockey to have access to all matches*. *except on the Indian subcontinent Source: fih.hockey