Indian men to finish 2021 in third spot, women drop to ninth in FIH rankings

Olympic bronze winning Indian men's hockey team will end the year in third spot, its highest-ever, as per the International Hockey Federation (FIH) rankings released on Thursday.

FILE PHOTO: Olympic bronze winning Indian men's hockey team will end the year in third spot, its highest-ever, as per the International Hockey Federation (FIH) rankings released on Thursday.

Olympic bronze winning Indian men's hockey team will end the year in third spot, its highest-ever, as per the International Hockey Federation (FIH) rankings released on Thursday.

The Manpreet Singh-led Indian team won the bronze in Tokyo Games earlier this year to end a 41-year medal wait for the country. India, which finished third in the just-concluded Asian Champions Trophy in Dhaka, will end the year with 2296.038 points behind Olympic champion Belgium and topper Australia.

Australia has leapfrogged Belgium in the latest chart following the Red Lions' recent FIH Hockey Pro League draw and defeat at the hands of the Netherlands.

Australia will close the year with 2642.25 points, just 10 points ahead of FIH Hockey Pro League and Olympic champion Belgium, which has 2632.12.

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Netherlands (2234.33) and Germany (2038.71) are placed in fourth and fifth positions respectively. The top ten is completed by England (6th - 1990.62), Argentina (7th - 1826.11), New Zealand (8th - 1598.24), Spain (9th - 1532.33) and Malaysia (10th - 1427.18).

The Asian Champions Trophy saw various exchanges of ranking points between the competing teams, although there was little in terms of movement. Champion South Korea remains 16th with runner-up Japan still in 17th position. Fourth placed finisher Pakistan continues to hold onto 18th place, while fifth placed Bangladesh have dropped two places to 40.

Among women, India has dropped a rung to ninth spot from the last update.

The Indian women's team, which finished a historic fourth in the Tokyo Olympics, will end the year with 1810.32 points.

Netherlands women will finish the year at the top of the FIH world rankings.

The Oranje end 2021 with 3015.35 points, over 600 ranking points ahead of second placed England (2375.78). Olympic silver medallist Argentina will begin 2022 in the third spot, being just 14 points behind England with 2361.28.

Australia (2334.04) will finish the year in fourth place, with Germany (2126.15) and Spain (1959.62) fifth and sixth positions respectively. Belgium (7th place - 1939.88), New Zealand (8th place – 1821.11), India (9th place – 1810.32) and China (10th place – 1677.96) complete the top ten.