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Santiago 2023: It is North America vs. South America in hockey
Argentina, Canada, the USA and Chile have qualified for the medal round at the Pan Am Games
Pan Am Games / Games image
Hockey competitions in the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games are heading to their climax as battle lines have been drawn for the medal round.
The same four teams – Argentina, Canada, the USA, and Chile – have cleared the initial hurdle of playing the group matches to qualify for the medal round.
Interestingly, the defending champions in both men’s and women’s sections, Argentina, ended the preliminary group matches round with a clean record winning all their games.
In the men’s section, Argentina, the only South American team to have won an Olympic gold medal, is drawn to play the USA in the first semi-final on November 1. Canada, the only other team after Argentina to have won the men’s title in the Pan Am Games, is drawn to play the hosts, Chile, in the second semi-final. Though Chile lost to Argentina in pool games, it has emerged as a strong underdog in this tournament with its fine showing.
Canada, too, recorded emphatic wins in all its three group matches. Led by drag-flicker Gordon Johnston, who played his 200th international early in the tournament, carries the onerous responsibility of carrying his team to the Paris Olympic Games.
Both the semi-finals promise some vantage hockey as teams taking their chances will move to the gold medal round.
A strong Indian community in North America has been rallying behind both the US and Canadian hockey teams. While the US is represented by four players of Indian origin, Canada has two playing members of Indian origin and a third player as a standby. Incidentally, the chief coach of the US men’s hockey team is also an Indian.
Going by history, Argentina had won the Pan Am representation in the Olympic Games more than any other nation. Canada is the only other nation that won the Pan Am Games hockey title.
Gold medal finish here can get a direct passage to Paris. Otherwise, there will be an Olympic Qualifying tournament that can provide an optional route to Paris.
The possibility of the teams from either the South or the North America making the final round cannot be ruled out. The same may be true of the women’s competition as it is a confrontation between North vs South in the semi-final round with Canada taking on Argentina and the USA playing the hosts Chile.
This time, no woman hockey player of Indian origin is represented either on the US or the Canadian team.
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