Lausanne (Switzerland), Mar 4: After their home round of the FIH Pro League matches, the Indian men's and women's got some ranking points boost as they remained in the top 10 in the FIH World Rankings.

In the Bhubaneswar leg of the FIH Pro League, the Indian women's team played World champions the Netherlands, Australia, England, Germany, and Spain while the men's team took on England, Germany, Spain, and Ireland.

After the rankings were updated on Tuesday, the Indian men's team is placed fifth while the women's team is ninth spot.

The first two months of 2025 have witnessed some incredible hockey action with events across all tiers of international hockey. The list of tournaments included FIH Hockey Pro League action in three stages: Sydney, Australia; Bhubaneswar, India and Santiago del Estero, Argentina.

Along with the Pro League, international hockey action was also running in parallel for teams in the next two tiers with the first edition of the FIH Hockey Men’s Nations Cup 2 being played in Oman and the third edition of the FIH Hockey Women’s Nations Cup which came to an end on 2 March in Chile.

The hectic hockey action created changes aplenty across the board as each win and loss amongst teams ranked close to each other led to movements up and down in the world rankings.

In the women’s world rankings, Netherlands (3639) remain at the top of the list but a shoot-out loss to India in their final Pro League match in Bhubaneswar saw them drop over 50 points.

The World and Olympic champions continue to hold a healthy lead over second-placed Argentina (3223), who themselves are comfortably ahead of Belgium (3039) in third place, the FIH informed in a statement on Tuesday.

The remaining teams in the Pro League are separated by less than 350 points from fourth to ninth place. Leading the pack are China (2734) in fourth place, followed by Australia (2696) in fifth, Germany (2662) in sixth, Spain (2583) in seventh, England (2440) in eighth, and India (2391) in ninth.

The FIH Nations Cup in Chile further shook up the rankings below the top-9 competing in the FIH Pro League. In tenth place sit New Zealand (2177), further tightening their grip on a top-10 sport following their victory at the Nations Cup, with Ireland (2118) following closely behind after back-to-back runner-up finishes at the event.

Chile (2033) with consecutive third-place finishes achieved their best-ever world ranking as the twelfth-ranked team, followed closely by Japan (2030) in thirteenth and United States (1946) in fourteenth. Scotland (1813) in the 15th and Korea (1793) in the 16th are placed close together. Canada (1549) who finished in the last place of the Nations Cup, have been overtaken by Italy (1583) for the seventeenth place.

In the men’s world rankings, Olympic champions Netherlands (3241) continue to lead the way following a solid start to their FIH Pro League campaign, but closing the gap rapidly are Belgium (3123) and England (3061) who also stand atop the Pro League table halfway through the season. Reigning world champions Germany (3053) find themselves in fourth, but within touching distance of a top-three spot, followed by India (2978) in fifth.

Australia (2824), Spain (2716), and Argentina (2682) have made mixed starts to their Pro League campaigns and find themselves in the sixth, seventh and eighth spots in the world rankings. In ninth place are France (2116), ahead of Ireland (2091) who are yet to register a win in the Pro League this season.

Following behind, from the eleventh to sixteenth spots, are South Africa (2082), New Zealand (2058), Malaysia (1970), Korea (1945), Pakistan (1942) and Japan (1851). These six teams, along with France ranked ninth and Wales (1793) ranked eighteenth, will play in the FIH Hockey Men’s Nations Cup in Malaysia from 15-21 June 2025.

Following the first edition of the Men’s Nations Cup 2, Egypt (1830) was the biggest rank gainer, finding themselves in 17th place.

Austria (1774) are ranked 19th followed by gold medal winners at the event Scotland (1716), who have been promoted to the Nations Cup 2026, in twentieth. The remaining Nations Cup 2 teams, Canada (1688), China (1594), Chile (1534), Poland (1533), and the USA (1475) round out the top-25 in the men’s world rankings.

(IANS)

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