2011 Rabo Women’s Champions Trophy to take place in June at Amsterdam: Hockey Update
2011 Rabo Champions Trophy (RCT) of hockey for women will be played in Amsterdam, Netherlands from June 25–July 3. The complete match fixtures were announced by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) on February 24.
This would be the 18th version of the event that has been revolutionised this year with respect to its format. The major change taken place in RCT this year is that instead of the round robin’s traditional six-team format, there would now be eight
teams to face off in it. This modification has given a new playing pattern for the event in 2011.
The FIH Competition Manager, Martyn Gallivan, commented upon the alteration by saying, “There was a lot of talk about expanding this tournament to include eight teams. When you look at the strength and depth of the women’s game at the moment, this was the
right time to test the expansion waters.”
For the preliminary round, the eight teams will be divided into a pair of four team-pools namely Group A and Group B. Group A will comprise of the teams Argentina, China, England and Korea while Group B features the Netherlands, Germany, Australia and New
Zealand.
The top two teams from each pool will qualify to move into Group C, whereas the other two teams will directly be sent to Group D. Basically, the teams moving onto Group C will get the chance to compete for a medal. On the other hand, teams sent to Group
D will only have the opportunity to play for a placing among the eight teams.
As soon as teams are place in to Group C and Group D respectively, another round robin will take place considering the previous round’s results. The top two teams of Group c shall head for the finals and the other two teams will play off for bronze.
Likewise in Group D, the top finishers will compete for the 5th place, while the bottom two teams will fight to secure the 7th-place of the event.
The preliminary round is scheduled to take place from June 25-28 for over three days of the competition whereas the second round will begin on June 30 and will also continue for three days. At the end, the medal games shall be played on Sunday, July 3.
The Argentinean women hockey team will be defending their former title in this event against the host team the Netherlands who look forward to switch over to gold from their previous 2010’s silver win. Moreover, England will be chasing close for a better
medal than the last year’s bronze.
The match schedule released is provided as follows:
Saturday, 25 June Group A China
versus Korea
Group A Argentina
versus England
Group B Germany
versus New Zealand
Group B Netherlands
versus Australia
Sunday, 26 June Group A England
versus Korea
Group A China
versus Argentina
Group B Australia
versus New Zealand
Group B Germany
versus Netherlands
Tuesday, 28 June Group A England
versus China
Group B Australia
versus Germany
Group A Argentina
versus Korea
Group B Netherlands
versus New Zealand
Those who make it to Group C and Group D are intended to compete according to the schedule set by the FIH for the subsequent days.
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