Geophrey Sifani Sports Reporter
THERE was double delight for South Africa at Randburg Hockey Stadium on Sunday when their men’s and women’s national teams clinched the Africa Hockey Championship titles, and with them qualification for next year’s Rio Olympics. The South African men beat Egypt 4-2 in the final while the women overwhelmed Ghana 3-0.
The South Africa women ran riot in their 27-0 rout of Tanzania in the semi-finals to book a date with Ghana in the final. The South African men’s team edged Kenya 2-1 in the semi-finals while Egypt dismissed Ghana 7-1 to set up the mouth-watering grand finale between the two African hockey powerhouses.
The Zimbabwe men and women’s teams could, however, not match the tournament’s top teams despite posting some victories.
The men’s side emerged sixth out of nine countries that took part in the tournament after they were edged 2-3 after extra time by Nigeria in the fifth place playoff. The Zimbabwe women finished fifth out of seven nations.
Zimbabwe started on the back foot when the men’s team was hammered 0-16 by South Africa in their opening game.
They recovered in their next match to beat Namibia 6-3 before upping the gear to crush Botswana 19-0 in their third match.
However, the Zimbabwean men came a cropper in their next game, falling 2-4 to Ghana.
The women’s side lost four of their six games. They had started on a high by romping to a 9-0 victory over Tanzania in their opening match, but were checked 0-2 by Kenya in their next fixture.
After the Kenya defeat, the Zimbabwe women’s performances went downhill as they fell 0-4 to Ghana before the hosts heaped more misery on them with a thumping 6-0 victory.
They narrowly lost 1-2 to Namibia before beating Nigeria Nigeria 2-1 in their final match of the tournament.
South Africa remain the continent’s number one side in the men’s category, according to rankings released after the tournament, followed by Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Tanzania and Botswana.
In the women’s rankings, South Africa are number one followed by Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Tanzania.