Pakistan, Malaysia, Japan start their campaign with big victories

Top three teams will qualify for the FIH Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023, to be played in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Fancied Pakistan toyed with Chinese Taipei to record a 15-1 win, Japan trounced Thailand 7-1 and Malaysia drubbed Uzbekistan 8-1 in the AHF Men’s Junior Asia Cup Salalah 2023, which got underway in Salalah on Tuesday.

Three-time champions Pakistan turned out to be too strong for their rivals and the huge margin sent out warning signals to the rest that they are one of the title contenders. Pakistan along with defending champions India have won the Junior Asia Cup a record three times each.

Both have been drawn in the same Group A and the blockbuster clash in the group stage will take place on May 27.

Pakistan led 5-0 while Japan were ahead 6-0 at half-time in Group A games.

Mohammed Sufyaan and Abdul Hanan Shahid scored a hat-trick each in Pakistan’s huge win.

In the first of Group B matches, Malaysia were emphatic in their demolition of Uzbekistan, leading 6-0 at the break.

Organised by the Oman Hockey Association (OHA) under the auspices of Asian Hockey Federation (AHF), the best young Asian teams are in action at the tournament, which began on Tuesday and will conclude on June 1.

The top three teams from Salalah will qualify as Asian representatives for the upcoming FIH Junior

Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023, to be played in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

The ten participating teams have been split into two pools.

Pool A comprises Chinese Taipei, India, Japan, Pakistan and

Thailand. In Pool B hosts Oman are joined by Bangladesh, Korea, Malaysia and Uzbekistan.

Each team in the pool stage will play the other four teams in their group once. The top two teams in both pools will qualify for the semi-finals, while the teams in third and fourth positions will compete for the 5-8 place classification.

The teams finishing in the fifth place in both pools will go headto-head to avoid finishing in the tenth place. The losing semi-finalists will play in the bronze medal match, with the two finalists and the bronze medalists qualifying for the FIH Junior Hockey World Cup 2023.

Malaysia, as hosts, have already qualified for the World Cup, so if Malaysia enter the semifinals of the Junior Asia Cup, all the other three teams making it to the semi-finals will gain entry into the World Cup as well.

The FIH Junior Hockey Men’s World Cup 2023 will be played in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 5-16 December 2023.

Teams that have already qualified for the World Cup are Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and Spain from Europe. Australia and New Zealand have also qualified through the Oceania qualifiers. South Africa and Egypt are the qualifiers from Africa while Argentina, Canada and Chile are the three qualifiers from Pan America.