Tokyo, Japan: The Ready Steady Tokyo hockey test event for the 2020 Olympic hockey tournaments started today in the brand-new Oi Hockey Stadium, in Japan’s capital city.

While the primary objective of this event is to test operations that will be put in place at the Olympic Games in about a year’s time, on the sports side, all invited teams started their tournament today.

In the Women’s competition, India defeated the hosts (2-1), but that was not enough to break the enthusiasm of the home fans who ensured a pretty full attendance. Meanwhile, China managed to upset the current number 2 in the world rankings, namely Australia (3-2).

On the Men’s side, India showed the same form as during the FIH Series Finals in Bhubaneswar, scoring no less than six times against Malaysia (6-0). On this occasion, Malaysian player Aiman Rozemi celebrated his 100^thinternational match.

The match between Japan and New Zealand was much more balanced and the winning goal from the Blacksticks was scored with only 4 seconds to go (4-3).

Due to the nature of this event, there are no rankings points at stake.

The tournament was preceded by an opening ceremony involving Her Royal Highness Princess Takamado to officially launch the event but also inaugurate the new stadium. Furthermore, FIH introduced “Gift of Hockey”, its official campaign for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

The action continues tomorrow with the following matches and schedule (local time):

09:30    India – Australia (Women)
10:00    China – Japan (Women)
18:30    Malaysia – Japan (Men)
19:00    New Zealand – India (Men)

The full match schedules as well as the list of officials, including the umpires, appointed by FIH for this event are available here (Men’s) and here (Women’s).

To find more information about TOCOG’s “Ready Steady” campaign for the Test Event, please click here.

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