Pan American Cup Hosts named

The Pan American Hockey Federation has announced the hosts for the 2nd Pan American Cup Field Hockey Tournaments in 2004. The tournaments will be held in London, Ontario, Canada for men from May 12-23, 2004 and in Bridgetown, Barbados for the women from April 17-28, 2004.

Qualifying tournaments for the Pan American Cup are scheduled for 2003 and include the South American Championships recently completed in Santiago, Chile, March 16-23. Additional qualifying tournaments for North American, Central American and Caribbean teams are scheduled for April 4-13 in Havana, Cuba for women's teams and May 5-11 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic for men's teams.

The Pan American Cup serves as the continental-qualifying event for the 2006 FIH World Cup. The Pan American Cup tournaments are scheduled to feature 12 men's and 12 women's teams.

Countries already qualified for the Women's Pan American Cup include defending champions Argentina and host Barbados. For the men, Cuba will be defending its title while Canada qualifies as the host nation. Following the 2004 tournament, defending champions will no longer automatically qualify for the next tournament. The change in the qualifying procedure follows the format of the Olympic Games and FIH rule requiring defending champions to qualify for tournaments through traditional qualifying events.

For more information about the qualifying tournaments and the Pan American Cup, please visit the Pan American Hockey Federation web site.

The Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) is recognized by the FIH as the governing continental federation for all field hockey in the Pan American region. There are 20 member Nations of the PAHF. For more information please contact info@panamhockey.org.