Field hockey at the 2008 Summer Olympics

Field hockey at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was held over a fourteen-day period beginning on 10 August, culminating with the medal finals on 22 and 23 August.^[1] All games were played at the hockey field constructed on the Olympic Green.^[1][2]

Field hockey at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Venue	Olympic Green Hockey Field
Dates	10–23 August 2008
No. of events	2
Competitors	387 from 15 nations
← 2004 2012 →

Competition format

Twelve teams competed in both the men's and women's Olympic hockey tournaments with the competition consisting of two rounds.^[3] In the first round, teams were divided into two pools of six teams, and play followed the round robin format with each of the teams playing all other teams in the pool once. Teams were awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and zero points for a loss.^[3] At the end of the pool matches, teams were ranked in their pool according to the following criteria, in order:^[3]

• Total points accumulated
• Number of matches won
• Goal difference
• Goals for
• The result of the match played between the teams in question

Following the completion of the pool games, teams placing first and second in each pool advanced to a single elimination round consisting of two semifinal games, and the bronze and gold medal games.^[3] Remaining teams competed in classification matches to determine their ranking in the tournament. During these matches, extra time of 71⁄2 minutes per half was played if teams were tied at the end of regulation time. During extra time, play followed golden goal rules, with the first team to score declared the winner. If no goals were scored during extra time, a penalty stroke competition took place.^[3]

Competition schedule

The competition schedule was released on 29 May 2008, by the International Hockey Federation and Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games.^[4][5]

Field hockey at the 2008 Summer Olympics
August			8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24
																	W	M

Round robin matches

Classification matches

W

Medal games – Women

M

Medal games – Men

Qualification

Men's qualification

Each of the continental champions from five federations and host received an automatic berth. The European and Asian federations received two and one extra quotas respectively, based upon the FIH World Rankings at the completion of the 2006 World Cup. In addition to the three teams qualifying through the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments, the following twelve teams, shown with final pre-tournament rankings, competed in this tournament.^[6][7]

Date	Event	Location	Quotas	Qualifiers
Hosts			1	China (17)
2–14 December 2006	2006 Asian Games	Doha, Qatar	2	South Korea (5)  Pakistan (6)
14–22 July 2007	2007 African Olympic Qualifier	Nairobi, Kenya	1	South Africa (13)
14–29 July 2007	2007 Pan American Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	1	Canada (15)
18–25 August 2007	2007 EuroHockey Championship	Manchester, England	3	Netherlands (3)  Spain (4)  Belgium (12)
11–17 September 2007	2007 Oceania Cup	Buderim, Australia	1	Australia (2)
2–10 February 2008	Olympic Qualifying Tournament 1	Auckland, New Zealand	1	New Zealand (10)
1–9 March 2008	Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2	Santiago, Chile	1	Great Britain (8)
5–13 April 2008	Olympic Qualifying Tournament 3	Kakamigahara, Japan	1	Germany (1)
Total			12

Women's qualification

Each of the continental champions from five federations and host received an automatic berth. The European federation received two extra quotas, while Oceania received one extra quota, based upon the FIH World Rankings at the completion of the 2006 World Cup. In addition to the three teams qualifying through the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments, the following twelve teams, shown with final pre-tournament rankings, competed in this tournament.^[8][9]

Dates	Event	Location	Quotas	Qualifier(s)
Host nation			1	China (5)
2–14 December 2006	2006 Asian Games	Doha, Qatar	1	Japan1 (6)
14–22 July 2007	2007 African Olympic Qualifier	Nairobi, Kenya	1	South Africa (12)
14–29 July 2007	2007 Pan American Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	1	Argentina (2)
18–25 August 2007	2007 EuroHockey Championship	Manchester, England	3	Germany (3)  Netherlands (1)  Great Britain (10)
10–17 September 2007	2007 Oceania Cup	Buderim, Australia	2	New Zealand (7)  Australia (4)
12–20 April 2008	Olympic Qualifying Tournament 1	Baku, Azerbaijan	1	Spain (8)
19–27 April 2008	Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2	Kazan, Russia	1	United States (11)
26 April – 4 May 2008	Olympic Qualifying Tournament 3	Victoria, Canada	1	South Korea (9)
Total			12

^1 – China qualified both as host and continental champion; therefore, that quota was given to the Asian federation, allowing Japan to qualify directly for the 2008 Summer Olympics as the second-placed team at the 2006 Asian Games .

Men's tournament

Main article: Field hockey at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament

First round

Pool A

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	5	4	0	1	9	5	+4	12	Semi-finals
2	Germany	5	3	2	0	12	6	+6	11
3	South Korea	5	2	1	2	13	11	+2	7	Fifth place game
4	New Zealand	5	2	1	2	10	9	+1	7	Seventh place game
5	Belgium	5	1	1	3	9	13	−4	4	Ninth place game
6	China (H)	5	0	1	4	7	16	−9	1	Eleventh place game

Source: FIH
(H) Hosts

Pool B

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	5	4	1	0	16	6	+10	13	Semi-finals
2	Australia	5	3	2	0	24	7	+17	11
3	Great Britain	5	2	2	1	10	7	+3	8	Fifth place game
4	Pakistan	5	2	0	3	11	13	−2	6	Seventh place game
5	Canada	5	1	1	3	10	17	−7	4	Ninth place game
6	South Africa	5	0	0	5	4	25	−21	0	Eleventh place game

Source: FIH

Medal round

	Semi-finals				Gold medal match
	21 August
	Netherlands	1 (3)
					23 August
	Germany (p.s.o.)	1 (4)
					Germany	1
	21 August
					Spain	0
	Spain	3
	Australia	2
					Bronze medal match
					23 August
					Netherlands	2
					Australia	6

Final ranking

1.  Germany
2.  Spain
3.  Australia
4.  Netherlands
5.  Great Britain
6.  South Korea
7.  New Zealand
8.  Pakistan
9.  Belgium
10.  Canada
11.  China
12.  South Africa

Women's tournament

Main article: Field hockey at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament

First round

Pool A

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Netherlands	5	5	0	0	14	3	+11	15	Advanced to semifinals
China	5	3	1	1	14	4	+10	10
Australia	5	3	1	1	17	9	+8	10
Spain	5	2	0	3	4	12	−8	6
South Korea	5	1	0	4	13	18	−5	3
South Africa	5	0	0	5	2	18	−16	0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Pool B

Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
Germany	5	4	0	1	12	8	+4	12	Advanced to semifinals
Argentina	5	3	2	0	13	7	+6	11
Great Britain	5	2	2	1	7	9	−2	8
United States	5	1	3	1	9	8	+1	6
Japan	5	1	1	3	5	7	−2	4
New Zealand	5	0	0	5	6	13	−7	0

Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Medal round

	Semi-finals				Gold medal match
	20 August
	Germany	2
					22 August
	China	3
					China	0
	20 August
					Netherlands	2
	Netherlands	5
	Argentina	2
					Bronze medal match
					22 August
					Germany	1
					Argentina	3

Final ranking

1.  Netherlands
2.  China
3.  Argentina
4.  Germany
5.  Australia
6.  Great Britain
7.  Spain
8.  United States
9.  South Korea
10.  Japan
11.  South Africa
12.  New Zealand

Medal summary

Medal table

  *   Host nation (China)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Germany (GER)	1	0	0	1
	Netherlands (NED)	1	0	0	1
3	China (CHN)*	0	1	0	1
	Spain (ESP)	0	1	0	1
5	Argentina (ARG)	0	0	1	1
	Australia (AUS)	0	0	1	1
Totals (6 entries)		2	2	2	6

Medalists

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men details	Germany (GER) Philip Witte Maximilian Mueller Sebastian Biederlack Carlos Nevado Moritz Fuerste Jan-Marco Montag Tobias Hauke Tibor Weißenborn Benjamin Weß Niklas Meinert Timo Weß Oliver Korn Christopher Zeller Max Weinhold Matthias Witthaus Florian Keller Philipp Zeller	Spain (ESP) Francisco Cortes Santiago Freixa Francisco Fábregas Víctor Sojo Alex Fàbregas Pablo Amat Eduardo Tubau Roc Oliva Juan Fernandez Ramón Alegre Xavier Ribas Albert Sala Rodrigo Garza Sergi Enrique Eduard Arbós David Alegre 0	Australia (AUS) Jamie Dwyer Liam de Young Rob Hammond Mark Knowles Eddie Ockenden David Guest Luke Doerner Grant Schubert Bevan George Andrew Smith Stephen Lambert Eli Matheson Matthew Wells Travis Brooks Kiel Brown Fergus Kavanagh Des Abbott
Women details	Netherlands (NED) Maartje Goderie Maartje Paumen Naomi van As Minke Smabers Marilyn Agliotti Minke Booij Wieke Dijkstra Sophie Polkamp Ellen Hoog Lidewij Welten Lisanne de Roever Miek van Geenhuizen Eva de Goede Janneke Schopman Eefke Mulder Fatima Moreira de Melo	China (CHN) Ren Ye Zhang Yimeng Gao Lihua Chen Qiuqi Zhao Yudiao Li Hongxia Cheng Hui Tang Chunling Zhou Wanfeng Ma Yibo Fu Baorong Pan Fengzhen Huang Junxia Song Qingling Li Shuang Chen Zhaoxia	Argentina (ARG) Paola Vukojicic Belén Succi Magdalena Aicega Mercedes Margalot Mariana Rossi Noel Barrionuevo Giselle Kañevsky Claudia Burkart Luciana Aymar Mariné Russo Mariana González Oliva Soledad García Alejandra Gulla María de la Paz Hernández Carla Rebecchi Rosario Luchetti

References

1. "Hockey – Beijing Olympics 2008". en.beijing2008.cn. Archived from the original on 20 August 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
2. "Hockey at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
3. XXIXth Olympic Games Tournament Regulations – Men's and Women's Hockey Competitions
4. "Olympic Hockey Tournament Match Schedule released". fihockey.org. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
5. "Match schedule" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 May 2011. Retrieved 21 August 2008.
6. "Qualification System – Games of the XXIX Olympiad" (PDF). FIH. February 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 April 2009. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
7. "FIH releases pools for Men's Olympic Hockey Tournament". FIH. 18 April 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
8. "Qualification System – Games of the XXIX Olympiad" (PDF). FIH. February 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 April 2009. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
9. "FIH releases pools for Women's Olympic Hockey Tournament". FIH. 5 May 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2014.

External links

• Official FIH website
• Hockey – Official Results Book