South Africa men and women’s hockey team have booked a ticket to participate in the London 2012 Olympics after winning the final matches played at Khumalo Hockey Stadium on Sunday.
The men’s team won 1-0 against Egypt while the women’s team thrashed Kenya 5-0.
South Africa got their first penalty corner as early as the third minute after Justin Reid-Ross laid the ball to Tim Drummond, but Egyptian captain Kasbr Mohamed cleared the ball out of the danger.
South Africa won two penalty corners in succession in the early stages of the game but two efforts from Reid-Ross did not trouble Egyptian goalkeeper Osama Hassanein.
Egyptian forward Ahmed Gamal could have put his side one up after 17 minutes but Brendan Botes stretched full length to save the effort.
South Africa then got their solitary goal through captain Wade Paton who scored a field goal.
Amr Sayed made a brilliant move dribbling past Reid-Ross, but his shot found no taker in the box.
The Egyptians could have found the equaliser after a good exchange of passes between Ahmed Gamal and Amr Sayed but the later’s effort was saved by Botes.
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Egypt got another chance after 67 minutes when Ezze Ahmed got the better of the South Africa defence, but he selfishly wasted an opportunity as his shot went wide when his teammates were lurking in the box.
Earlier, South African women’s team beat Kenya 5-0. South Africa got their first goal as early as the third minute through a penalty corner which was converted by Tarryn Bright.
South Africa got three field goals from Sullete Damons, Cindy Botha and Benadette Coston who got two.
Hockey Association of Zimbabwe president Farai Kays Kanyangarara said he was happy with how the tournament progressed.
“The tournament was a great success. The community supported the games even when they were other competitions like cricket and the BancABC Sup8r Cup. The stadium was full and it has not been like that in over ten years. We hope that we will continue having such big tournaments even from the junior level,” he said.
Speaking at the closing ceremony Education, Sport, Arts and Culture minister David Coltart said:
“We have learnt three things from this tournament. This is a demonstration that we can achieve a lot if we work together. The future of hockey rests primarily in schools as the country has a strong culture of hockey in our schooling systems. Zimbabwe sport has been in the doldrums but we are rebuilding and expect a better challenge from us next time,” he said.
The fair play award went to South Africa women’s team while Zimbabwe men were given the fair play accolade.
The best player of the tournament was Egypt’s Sayed while South Africa’s Tanya Britz was the player in the women’s section.
Egypt came second, Kenya third, Ghana fourth, host Zimbabwe fifth and Morocco sixth in the men’s; section. Kenya were second, Ghana third while the Zimbabwe women’s team came last.
