Mariano Ronconi, technical director of the Argentine men's field hockey team, set out to "achieve Olympic qualification" at the 2023 Pan American Games, whose competition in the discipline will begin this Wednesday. "The challenge we set for ourselves, clearly, is the Olympic classification that this tournament generates by providing a place. So we are going for that and we hope we can achieve it," Ronconi acknowledged in an interview with Télam. The coach, leading the team since December 2021, will be accompanied on his coaching staff by Matías Vila (technical assistant); Ezequiel Paulon (technical assistant); Martin Elli (team leader); Lucas Peña (Video analyst); Leonardo Romagnoli (physical trainer) and Ignacio Ledesma (goalkeeper coach). The Argentine men's field hockey team competed in fourteen editions of the Pan American Games in which they won the gold medal ten times (Winnipeg 1967; Cali 1971; Mexico 1975; San Juan 1979; Havana 1991; Mar del Plata 1995; Santo Domingo 2003 , Guadalajara 2011; Toronto 2015 and Lima 2019), and four times the silver medal (Caracas 1983; Indianapolis 1987; Winnipeg 1999 and Rio de Janeiro 207). The Lions summoned for the Pan-American event are Tomás Santiago, Juan Ignacio Catán, Nicolás Cicileo, Nicolás Della Torre, Federico Monja, Tadeo Marcucci, Agustín Bugallo, Thomas Habif, Matías Rey, Santiago Tarazona, Lucas Toscani, Maico Casella, Tomás Domene, Agustín Mazzilli, Nicolás Keenan, Lucas Martínez, Nehuen Hernando and Bautista Capurro (the last two as reserves). The Argentine team, winner of the gold medal at the 2022 Odesur Games, will share in Group A with Mexico (Wednesday 25, 5:30 p.m.), Chile (Friday 27, 7:30 p.m.) and Peru (Sunday 29, 11:30 a.m.). The first two, as in Group B (Canada, United States, Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago), will advance to the semifinals to fight for the medals and the ticket to Paris 2024.