Austria and Ukraine’s women and the men’s teams from Scotland and Italy will join the EuroChamps27 party in London next summer following last weekend’s final qualifiers.
For Austria, they stormed to success in Prague, crucially beating the Czechia hosts 1-0 in the semi-final to assure their ticket to London.
And they followed up with a remarkable late comeback in the final to beat Ukraine 3-2, scoring twice in the last two minutes to take gold from the tournament.
Speaking about qualification, Austrian captain Johanna Czech said:“I really feel we are building something special. In the last years, we have built it up and there’s still more young talents coming through from the under 21 team.”
Team mate Daria Buchta added: “You can’t describe how excited we are. We worked for so many years for this moment and finally we will be in London next year.”
They will play in the top level for the first time since 1991.
For Ukraine, their place at EuroChamps27 came after they beat Switzerland 3-1 and Poland 2-1 last Friday with Olha Honcharenko’s spectacular overhead strike sealing the deal.
The striker was almost lost for words, saying: “It’s incredible emotions. We are so happy. We really deserve it and we worked so hard for this win. It really is a dream come true.”
On the men’s side, it was a Golden weekend all round for Scotland as they swept to first place with wins over Türkiye (6-1), Croatia (6-4) and Italy (3-1) in Rome.
Crucially, Jamie Golden scored a hat trick in the semi-final which guaranteed their place in the top division.
“Seven years ago was the last time we were there so we have worked so hard, summer after summer, not quite getting there so to do it today makes it all worth it!” was Golden’s reaction.
Italy, meanwhile, were the last side to take up their place at EuroChamps27 as they defeated Ukraine 6-2 and Portugal 5-2.
Davide Arosio was a star performer, achieving the biggest result of his career at the same venue where he grew up playing with Butterfly Roma as a child.
“It’s amazing, really emotional,” he said. “I don’t really know what to say. It’s what I dreamed of since I started playing hockey, to play a major tournament with Italy. It’s the best of my hockey life.” They will now wait with anticipation for the announcement of the line-up of the group phases for EuroChamps which will be determined following the update of the FIH world rankings following the conclusion of the FIH World Cup.