NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Eight-time champions India, who have never missed an Olympic hockey tournament, began their final opportunity to qualify for Beijing with an 8-0 thrashing of Russia at a qualifying tournament in Chile on Saturday.

Indian forward Prabhjot Singh scored three goals against Russia, who were a late replacement for Bangladesh in the tournament in Santiago.

Dilip Tirkey, Sardar Singh and V.R.Raghunath converted penalty corners with Shivendra Singh and Tushar Khandekar scoring the other two goals.

Former Olympic champions Britain, who are expected to meet India in the final of the tournament next week, also had an impressive win with an 11-0 thrashing of Mexico with Simon Mantell and Mat Daly scoring two goals each.

Austria defeated Chile 4-3 in the other match at the six-team tournament, which is the second of three qualifying events for Beijing, with the just the winners entering the 12-team draw at the August 8-24 Games.

New Zealand beat Argentina in the final of the first tournament last month. The third is in Japan in April.

China, Netherlands, South Korea, Canada, South Africa, Spain Belarus, Pakistan and Australia have also already qualified.

(Reporting by N.Ananthanarayanan; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)