Back-to-back Olympics would be 'marker' for Ireland - Sean Dancer

Sean Dancer is hopeful that this generation of Irish women's hockey players can lay down a "marker" by qualifying for back-to-back Olympic Games.

The Ireland head coach will lead his squad into the final qualifying tournament for Paris 2024 in Valencia this month.

Making a second Games in a row would extend a golden era for Irish women's hockey, having reached the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics which had followed the unforgettable run to the 2018 World Cup final.

And Dancer wants to see his squad continuing the momentum that has been built in this era.

"That would be a really true test of the character of the group for us to be able to qualify for two Olympics in a row," he told RTÉ Sport's Clare MacNamara.

"Obviously, Tokyo was the first time that they qualified and the World Cup result was an excellent result for the team, so that would just show the level that the team has got to and their right on the world stage to compete against the best teams in the world.

"I think it would be a real marker for us as a group and marker for the team to get that Olympic qualification."

The squad will head to Spain on Saturday before playing warm-up matches with Canada and France.

They will then face a tough challenge in their opening pool match against Belgium on 13 January before taking on Ukraine and South Korea.

The top two in the pool will reach the semi-finals, where two of Great Britain, Canada, Malaysia and hosts Spain await, but only the finalists and the third-place finisher will advance to the Olympics.

"We sit fifth-ranked in the tournament. We're going there to get a medal and getting us a medal in the top three would qualify us for the Olympics, so it is part of the bigger picture of where we're performing in tournaments and