Wales Surge Up Hockey World Rankings And Eye Commonwealth Games Reward

Wales have rocketed up the official World Hockey Rankings following their heroics at the EuroHockey Championships and both the men’s and women’s teams are now sitting in high enough positions to be invited to the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The target for both teams was to be ranked in the Top 10 in the Commonwealth and the men’s team climbed into 24^th place overall in the world thanks to their runners-up spot in Glasgow in the EuroHockey 11 Championships two months ago to reach that goal.

That achievement meant they went up eight places in the world – the biggest rise of any nation – and took them ahead of nearest rivals for the final Commonwealth Games qualification spot, Bangladesh (30^th) and Trinidad & Tobago (31^st).

The women, who reached the semi-finals at their EuroHockey 11 Championships in Cardiff, are in 9^th place among the Commonwealth countries in 26^th place overall.

“After a positive 2017 we are really pleased to see the players and coaches hard work over recent years being rewarded with the latest World ranking updates. To have both genders in the mid 20’s is a fantastic achievement and is testament to recent performances and results,” said the Head of Performance at Wales Hockey, Dan Clements.

“It’s great to see our men as the highest climbers overall. Going up eight places is a huge achievement and one the whole nation should be proud of.

“But the most pleasing aspect is the potential of where both groups could go given the desire that exists within each group. It promises to be an exciting few years ahead for both teams.”

Both teams qualified for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but didn’t win a game. The men lost all four and the women drew with Malaysia.

The Welsh men may not have picked up the title in Glasgow recently, but their second place finish did earn them promotion into the top Division in Europe in 2019 after beating France 4-3 in a tense semi-final 4-3.

“I’m pleasantly surprised by the number of places we have advanced and these updated rankings are a reflection of all the passion, commitment and hard work the players and staff have put into the programme over the past couple of years,” said Wales Men’s Head Coach, Zak Jones.

“It gives a clear indication of the progress we have made in that time both on and off the field. The challenge for us now is to try and maintain that momentum through the next two-year cycle and to continue to build a culture and environment that will allow us to improve further whilst competing regularly with those teams ranked above us.”

The Welsh women have also made huge strides in recent seasons and Head Coach Kevin Johnson was delighted to see his side hold onto their current ranking.

 “It’s obviously pleasing to see us retain our World ranking position after having a sizeable rise last time round. We accrued more useful points after a good performance at the Europeans in the summer and we continue to look to develop,” he said.

FIH MEN’S AND WOMEN’S HERO WORLD RANKINGS – NOVEMBER, 2017

MEN

RANK    COUNTRY            POINTS +/- RANK
1              Argentina           1845
2              Australia             1825
3              Belgium               1790       +2
4              Netherlands      1683
5              Germany            1600       -2
6              India                     1461
7              England               1407
8              New Zealand    1214
9              Spain                    1178
10           Ireland                 1043
11           Canada                1015
12           Malaysia             975
13           Pakistan              895         +1
14           Korea                   853         -1
15           South Africa      733
16           Japan                   711         +1
17           China                    658         +1
18           France                 645         -2
19           Austria                 623         +3
20           Egypt                    613         -1
21           Poland                 542         -1
22           Russia                  483         -1
23           Scotland             462
24           Wales                  410         +8
25           Ukraine               387

WOMEN

RANK    COUNTRY            POINTS +/- RANK
1                Netherlands     1985
2                England              1743
3                Argentina          1733
4                Australia            1625       +1
5                New Zealand   1603       +1
6                Germany           1490       +1
7                USA                     1278       -3
8                China                   1256
9                Korea                  1116
10             India                    1040       +2
11             Spain                   1028       -1
12             Japan                  1005       -1
13             Belgium              933         +1
14             South Africa     911         -1
15             Chile                    870         +5
16             Ireland                798
17             Italy                     623         -2
18             Scotland            594         -1
19             Czech Republic 515        +5
20             Belarus               508         +1
21             Canada               508         -2
22            Malaysia            495
23             Poland               493         -5
24             Uruguay             445         -1
25             Russia                 426         +4
26             Wales                 370
27             Ukraine              361         +1
28             Thailand             325         +3
29             Mexico               307         +1
30             Ghana                 304         +2
31             France                 285         -6
32             Austria                283         +1
33             Turkey                260         +3
34             Kazakhstan       252
35             Singapore         229         +5

* Commonwealth Nations in Bold