Uganda national hockey teams have attained the FIH Men’s and Women’s World Ranking after their recent participation in test matches against their Kenyan counterparts at Sikh Union Club in Nairobi.
Before the current one, Uganda last had an international ranking in 2007 when the senior men’s team had an engagement – the 2008 Olympic qualifiers.
After participating at the FIH ratified showpiece that came to a close on Sunday in Nairobi, Ugandan national sides become the latest teams to attain global ranking, though they are both at the bottom of their respective categories.
The men’s team is ranked 91st globally with 126.013 points while the women’s team is ranked 76th with 77.359 points.
Uganda men’s side picked two wins and one draw from three games at the Kenya event while the ladies lost all their matches albeit showing a slight improvement per each passing game.
Meanwhile, after a long period of testing, a new World Ranking model took effect from January 1, 2020 after approval by the FIH Executive Board but Ugandan sides got theirs recently.
Moving away from the previous tournament based ranking system, this new match based system involves an exchange of points between the 2 teams competing in each match played.
The number of points exchanged depends on the result of the match, the relative ranking of the teams and the importance of the match.
Uganda Hockey Association (UHA) Assistant General Secretary, Stanley Tamale who is also an umpire and has been around the national sides for a while now narrates that the ranking is a huge boost for the game here in Uganda.
“It means immense footing to move forward. It becomes easier to lobby both locally and internationally. It’s also motivation for the players and technical teams to work harder to move up the rankings,” Tamale said.
Globally, in the men’s category, Belgium are ranked first with 2602.319 points followed by Australia with 2489.583 points and third placed Netherlands have 2232.556 points.
In Africa, South Africa men’s side is the highest placed on 14th global ranking with 1260.059 points. Egypt is second highest ranked in Africa but on 21st global position with 898.000 points. South Africa and Egypt men’s teams are ranked above Russia, Italy, USA and China.
In the women’s category, Netherlands are ranked number one globally with 2772.084 points followed by Argentina with 2274.740 points whilst Germany cap the global podium with 2114.164 points.
In Africa, South Africa lead even in the women’s category but are 16th globally with 1166.232 points. Ghana are the second women’s team in Africa but are 33rd globally with 446.000 points. Neighbors Kenya are third women’s team in Africa but are 40th globally with 352.641 points whilst their (Kenya) men’s team are 52nd globally with 326.987 points.
