Argentina had suffered a shock 4-2 defeat to the United States, but take South Africa's place in London after they opted to go through the qualifying tournament.

The Netherlands, who replaced Argentina at the top of the world rankings at the end of October, already qualified for London through the EuroHockey Nations Championships in August, so the South Americans took South Africa's automatic spot at the Games as the highest ranked side yet to book a place at the Olympics.

The Argentine Hockey Confederation (CAH) confirmed that Las Leonas had qualified for the London Games after being invited by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) decided their women's team should play a qualifier having deemed the African nations tournament they won for a direct ticket to London as not being of sufficient standard.

Argentina's defeat in Mexico last month brought to an end a run of winning gold at every Pan American Games since 1987, but the men's team reclaimed their title with a 3-1 win over Canada in Guadalajara to ensure they will also be in London.

The FIH have also announced the 36 teams invited to participate in men's and women's Olympic qualifying tournaments in 2012.

New Delhi will host one men's and one women's competition in February, with the hosts represented in both.

The other five men's teams in India will be Canada, France, Poland, Egypt and the US, whilst the other women's competitors are South Africa, Italy, Canada, Ukraine and Poland.

Dublin will host the second men's qualifying tournament in March between Ireland, South Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Chile and Ukraine.

Beerschot will stage the second women's competition, also in March, with Spain, Ireland, Russia, France and Mexico travelling to Belgium to compete with the hosts for a place in London.

The final tournaments will both be in Kakamigahara, Japan, in April, with Spain, China, Austria, Cuba and the Czech Republic joining the hosts in the men's qualifiers, whilst in the women's contest Azerbaijan, Chile, Belarus, Malaysia, and Trinidad and Tobago will take on the Japanese.

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