USA pulls out; Singapore in

PRINCIPAL CORRESPONDENT

The International Hockey Federation (FIH), on Friday, announced that Singapore would replace the USA in the men’s Olympic qualifier to be held here from February 18-26.

After the USA pulled out of the event “due to player unavailability, retirements and injuries,” the FIH offered the vacant slot to Singapore. “We were pleased that Singapore agreed on such short notice to take part in the Olympic qualification event,” said FIH CEO Kelly Fairweather.

The other participating teams in the six-nation event are Canada, Italy, France, Poland and host India.

Earlier, Terry Walsh, technical director of high performance, USA Field Hockey, explained why USA chose to withdraw from the Olympic qualifier.

“The decision has been made strategically with the very best outcome for our programme in mind. Unavailability of many of the senior players has left the men’s programme in a position where our best assembled team has a performance potential well below that required to be competitive in a tournament of this calibre,” said Walsh in a statement.