T&T hockey teams get Pan Am 2013 spots

This country’s senior men and women hockey teams have secured automatic qualification to the Pan American Cup 2013: This came about after the Pan American Hockey Federation took a decision to give the top six nations from the 2009 Pan American Cups automatics spots. In explaining the decision, PAHF said it was doing so in an effort to be fair to all National Associations interested in participating in this top tier event and the Competitions Committee proposed to grant automatic placement to the top six  nations from the 2009 event. At the 2009 event, T&T men were fifth placed finishers, ahead of Mexico while Canada, USA, Argentina and Chile occupied the top four places. The local women’s team finished one spot higher than the men, fourth, ahead of Canada and Mexico.

Argentina won the tournament while USA was second and Chile, third. The remaining positions will be filled by the top two nations from a new competition called the Pan American Challenge to be held ideally in 2011 or at latest 2012. The decision for the change in qualification system after PAHF recognised the differences in playing levels between the top playing associations and the inability of others to gain entry into the Pan American Cup due to current qualification system. The Pan American Cup will retain its format of an eight nation tournament and the teams in this event will be eligible to qualify for the FIH World Cup and FIH World Cup Qualifiers.

With regards to the Pan American Challenge (men & women), this  tournament will be open to all National Associations seeking qualification to the Pan American Cup. Two Nations from each of the Men’s and Women’s Divisions will qualify. The nations placing seventh and eight at the previous Pan American Cup will join the other nations taking entry for the Pan American Challenge. For seeding purposes, nations shall be ranked according to the PAHF Internal Outdoor Rankings. The two top placed nations from the Pan American Challenge will be promoted to participate in the next Pan American Cup. The nations placing seventh and eight in the Pan American Cup will be relegated and receive automatic placement in the next Pan American Challenge.