Malaysia’s world ranking suffer a drop after World Cup

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia fell one rung to 13th in the latest world ranking released by International Hockey Federation (FIH).

Malaysia’s ranking dropped after the national team finished 15th among 16 teams that featured in the World Cup, which ended on Sunday in Bhubaneswar, India.

The drop will affect Malaysia’s hope of qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The FIH world ranking plays a vital role in determining Malaysia’s path towards the Tokyo Olympics.

Five continental champions will gain an automatic berth for the 2020 Olympics while seven more teams will qualify based on their performance at the World Series Finals.

Malaysia are likely to play one of the top seven ranked teams in the world to win a place for the Olympics.

Malaysia will host the FIH World Series at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil from April 23 to May 1, which is a qualifying tournament for the Olympics.

Malaysia are among eight countries to feature in the tournament and the other teams in the fray are Canada, China, Wales, Austria, Brazil, Italy and Vanuatu.

Belgium, who won the recent World Cup, moved up two rungs and are now ranked number one in the world.

Australia, who won the bronze medal at the World Cup, dropped to second while Holland, who lost to Belgium in the final, move up by one rung to third place.

France, who qualified for the quarter-finals by stunning 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics champion Argentina 3-2 in the second round of the World Cup, moved up five rungs to 15.