The Brazilian men’s team and the New Zealand women’s side have had their places in the hockey competition at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games confirmed by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

Brazil’s men earned their place as host nation by reaching the semi-finals of the Pan-American Games tournament, which is currently taking place in Toronto. Brazil had to finish in the top six in Canada, and their shoot-out victory over the USA in the quarter-finals confirmed they will finish in the top four.

Brazil join the six teams who qualified for Rio 2016 via the recent World League semi-final events in Buenos Aires and Antwerp – Germany, Netherlands, Argentina, Australia, Belgium and Great Britain – plus India, who qualified by winning last year’s Asian Games tournament.

However, Brazil’s women will not compete at the Rio 2016 Games, having failed to meet their qualifying criteria, which required them to be in the top 40 of the world rankings at the end of 2014 or finish in the top seven at the Pan-American Games, which they failed to qualify for.  

New Zealand’s women team, which came fourth at the World League semi-final in Antwerp, will therefore join the Republic of Korea, Great Britain, China, Germany, Argentina, Netherlands and Australia in Rio.

Anita Punt helped New Zealand qualify for the Rio 2016 Games (Photo: Hannah Johnston/Getty Images)

The remaining four Olympic places (men and women) will not be finalised until after the continental championships, which finish in October this year.  For more information on the qualifying process and to track who has qualified, click here for the men and here for the women.

Follow the race to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games here.

Rio2016.com is not an absolute authority on qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is an ongoing process. Final places will only be confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games). The qualification systems are defined by each sport’s respective International Federation and the International Olympic Committee or International Paralympic Committee, and are subject to change. When an athlete or team wins a quota place for their nation, the final decision on whether this ‘slot’ is used and which athletes are sent is taken by the respective National Olympic Committee or National Paralympic Committee (NOC or NPC). Even when athletes win a ‘nominal’ place for themselves, NOCs/NPCs may have to decide who to send if the number of qualified athletes from one country exceeds the quota.