Women and men are already in the starting blocks for the European Championships. It really starts on Sunday, August 15th, 2021 at 1:15 p.m. with the men in their first game in Gniezno (Poland) against Switzerland. Shortly afterwards – at 6 p.m. – the women follow, who will play their first game against the hosts in Prague.
All dates can be found on the homepage of the ÖHV – under “The next events”. Simply click on the event link and you will find the exact times and the link to the game results and the respective live stream.
Of course, there is also reporting directly from the event – our on-site reporters have already sharpened their pencils. Only the questions remain: How do you qualify for promotion? Can you relegate or what happens at which placement?
Well that’s not that easy to answer. In short, top 5 applies to men and women for the World Cup qualifier in autumn. And for the European Championship qualifier in 2022: the better the ranking, the easier the group next year.
For those interested in detail
Yes – you understand correctly – from 2021 there will no longer be any direct promotion or relegation in the individual divisions. As the IOC demands, all nations have the chance to qualify directly for the next European Championship in August 2023.
The top 4 of this year’s EM are already included . For men, these are: NED, GER, BEL, ENG and for women, NED, GER, BEL, ESP.
For the European Championship qualification in August 2022, the following ranked nations have home rights and can play as hosts at home: 5A, 6A, 1B, 2B. So for Austria that means – if we get into the top 2, there will be an EM qualifier tournament in Vienna, or two …
The following groups for the European Championship qualifiers result from the placements of the tournaments that have already been played:
| Ladies | |||
| Gr.1 | Size 2 | Gr.3 | Size 4 |
| CLOSELY | IRL | SCO | ITA |
| 4B | 3B | 2 B | 1B |
| 5B | 6B | 7B | 8B |
| CRO | DOOR | SUI | UKR |
| POR | SVK | SLO | |
| Men’s | |||
| Gr.1 | Size 2 | Gr.3 | Size 4 |
| ESP | FRA | WHALE | RUS |
| 4B | 3B | 2 B | 1B |
| 5B | 6B | 7B | 8B |
| POR | DOOR | CZE | BLR |
| SVK | LIT | SLO | |
The respective winners of the group tournaments will play in the A-EM in 2023, the second and third placed in the B-EM and the fourth and fifth placed in the C-EM. All other entries will be drawn by lot.
One more remark about the next world championship, the TOP 5 of the A-EM are directly qualified for the world championship (women: NED, GER, BEL, ESP, ENG / men: NED, GER, BEL, ENG, ESP). Places 6A, 7A and 8A as well as the top 5 of the B-EM go into the World Cup qualification. Ergo, the Austrian women and men have to achieve this ranking in order to play in Rome (women) or Cardiff (men) in mid-October 2021.