Singapore roped in after US withdraw from Olympic qualifiers

NEW DELHI: Unfancied Singapore will replace the United States in next month’s Olympic men’s qualifiers in the Capital, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) said on Friday.

The decision to rope in Singapore for the six-nation tournament was taken after the US “unexpectedly” pulled out “due to player unavailability besides retirements and injuries”.

Singapore are currently at the 41st place in the world ranking while the US are on 24th. India are the highest-ranked team in the competition at 10th spot followed by Canada (14).

“We were pleased that Singapore agreed on such short notice to take part in the Olympic Qualification event,” said FIH CEO Kelly Fairweather.

“It will undoubtedly give its men’s national team valuable experience in a major international tournament,” he was quoted as saying in the FIH website.

As per the revised schedule, India will now take on Singapore in their opening match on February 18.

Meanwhile, Terry Walsh, technical director of US High Performance said that the country’s best-available team would have a performance potential far below than the level required for the event.

“Unavailability of many of the seniors 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,” Walsh was quoted as saying by the US Hockey website.