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 24th 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 (30th) and Trinidad & Tobago (31st).
The women, who reached the semi-finals at their EuroHockey 11 Championships in Cardiff, are in 9th place among the Commonwealth countries in 26th 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