Australia men & Netherlands women hold firm at the top of the rankings
Belgium men leap-frog England into 4th while USA women move up to 5th
The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has released the latest FIH World Rankings as of March 2015. These include points awarded following the completion of the Hockey World League Round 2 events.Â
In the FIH Menâs World Rankings, 2014 World Champions Australia (1), World Cup Silver medallists the Netherlands (2) and 2012 Olympic Champions Germany (3) continue to hold the top three positions, with Tom Boonâs Belgium moving into fourth place ahead of Ashley Jacksonâs England, who drop to fifth.
Argentinaâs Los Leones retain sixth place ahead of New Zealand (7), Korea (8), India (9) and Pakistan (10).
Malaysia (12), Ireland (14), Canada (15), Japan (16), Poland (17), France (18), Egypt (20), Austria (22) and China (31) all secured top three finishes in the Hockey World League Round 2 events, reaching the Olympic qualifier Semi-Final phase and collecting crucial ranking points in the process.
Although these teams have seen little change in their current FIH World Ranking on this occasion, their involvement in the upcoming Hockey World League Semi-Finals will generate even more points and could trigger some significant movement.
The top four positions in the FIH Womenâs World Rankings remain the same, with the Netherlands (1), Australia (2), Argentina (3) and New Zealand (4) all retaining their places. However, there has been some movement in the 5-8 positions, with USA moving from eighth place to fifth ahead of Germanyâs Die Danas (6), China (7), England (8), Korea (9) and Japan (10).
As with the menâs rankings, the teams that secured qualification from Round 2 to the Semi-Finals of the womenâs Hockey World League have experienced only subtle changes in terms of the position in the FIH World Rankings at this stage.
However India (13), Ireland (14), Italy (16), Azerbaijan (19), Canada (20), Poland (23) and Uruguay (29) will all collect performance-related points from their involvement in the HWL Semi-Finals, something which could initiate substantial changes.
To see the latest FIH World Rankings in full, click here. The next update to the FIH World Rankings will be made following the completion of the Hockey World League Semi-Final events which take place in June and July.