Hockey: New promotion hurdle thrown in Scots' way

Both Scotland sides have overcome the hurdle of the pool matches of the European Nations Championships and now face today's cut-throat semi-final encounters.

The men play Czech Republic while the women take on Russia, and these matches will be played to finish either in normal time, golden goal extra time and ultimately a penalty shoot-out if required.

There is now an additional barrier to the promotion ambitions of coaches Russell Garcia (men) and Gordon Shepherd (women), for in their wisdom the European Hockey Federation have already announced that Belgium will host the first division Championships in 2013, and therefore their sides cannot be relegated this year.

Consequently, if either Belgium men or women should finish in the bottom two in this month's tournament, only one team will be promoted from the second division rather than the normal two, so winning today's semi-final may not secure guaranteed promotion for the Scots.

The men are still undefeated in the tournament and finished top of their pool. Their opponents the Czechs finished second in theirs. The women finished second and the Russians are so far unbeaten.