Final six spots for Tokyo Olympics Hockey decided

ISLAMABAD: The sixth and final day of the FIH Hockey Olympic qualifiers has drawn to a close, and the final six tickets to Tokyo 2020 have been claimed. New Zealand's men booked a safe passage through to next year's Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 thanks to a 3-0 victory over Korea in Stratford.

Great Britain's women claimed a 2-1 win over Chile in the second match of the day, a result which gave them a 5-1 victory on aggregate to keep alive the dream of successfully defending the Olympic title that they won at Rio 2016.

Later in the day, Great Britain's men joined their women on the plane to Tokyo thanks largely to Alan Forsyth, who bagged a hat-trick as the hosts won 5-2 against Malaysia on the day and 9-3 on aggregate. Germany's women also booked their place at Tokyo 2020 with a dominant and impressive 7-0 win over Italy. The earlier game had seen Die Danas run out as slightly more tentative 2-0 winners, but the 9-0 aggregate score underlined their superiority over the lower-ranked European neighbours. Germany’s men followed up their 5-0 first leg win over Austria on

Saturday with a 5-3 triumph in Sunday’s second game to earn their Olympic berth.

The final ticket to Tokyo 2020 was dramatically claimed by Ireland's women at Dublin's Energia Park, with the hosts claiming a 4-3 shoot-out victory over Canada in front of 6000 enthralled fans. The Green Army - silver medallists at least year's Vitality Hockey Women's World Cup London 2018 - trailed 3-1 in the shoot-out before staging a remarkable comeback before winning in sudden-death to achieve Olympic qualification for the first time in their history.