{"id":55569,"date":"2023-10-26T16:19:22","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T16:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/african-teams-are-tough-warn-sa-hockey-teams-before-games-qualifier"},"modified":"2023-10-26T16:52:27","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T16:52:27","slug":"african-teams-are-tough-warn-sa-hockey-teams-before-games-qualifier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/african-teams-are-tough-warn-sa-hockey-teams-before-games-qualifier","title":{"rendered":"African teams are tough, warn SA hockey teams before Games qualifier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Between them, the national men\u2019s and women\u2019s hockey teams have lost only once at an African Olympic qualifying tournament in the past 20 years, but both sides say they\u2019re taking nothing for granted at the 2023 edition in Pretoria from Sunday.<\/p>\n

Places at the 2024 Paris Games are available only for the winners, to be decided in the finals next Saturday.The women have never lost, while the men were beaten by Egypt at the 2003 tournament, which also happened to be the last time qualification was staged under the All Africa Games banner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never experienced easy matches in this tournament,\u201d men\u2019s coach Cheslyn Gie said at a press conference in Pretoria on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething that worries us is we haven\u2019t played a Test match since the World Cup [in late January], so it\u2019s going to be tough to adjust to the speed and pace of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Captain Dayaan Cassiem echoed his view. \u201cI think in Africa every game is tough. We have to take it game by game and from there see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he was heartened by the preparations in camp.\u201cIt\u2019s going really well, the boys are working hard. Yesterday [Wednesday] some of the guys ran 8km in a squad game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice that the team hasn\u2019t changed a lot from previous tournaments so the culture is the same. We\u2019re ready to compete and make the country proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

But they will be without a few familiar faces when the final 18-man squad is announced on Friday, partly because of injuries and partly because a few players were unable to get leave from work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a full squad, we\u2019ve had some injuries,\u201d said Gie. \u201cBut it\u2019s a very good squad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celia Seerane, one of the senior players in the women\u2019s squad, was upbeat about her team\u2019s chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had great prep, probably the best prep I\u2019ve ever had leading up to an African Cup,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a technical camp and another camp that was game focused. So we feel the team and the mood in the camp is exciting. We\u2019re focused, we\u2019re not taking anything for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seerane was excited about the new talent coming through.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a 17-year-old teammate, Paris-Gail Isaacs. That is incredible and she\u2019s done well. I\u2019ve watched her play for a year or two.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe youngsters, I found they bring a new spirit to our camp. They don\u2019t have fear, they just want to play,\u201d she added, pointing out the older players tended to be more cautious.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Getting] that balance, it\u2019s tricky. I think this team now, we have found the balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assistant women\u2019s coach Inky Zondi stressed the significance of the tournament. \u201cFor us it’s the one ticket we have to the Games so we\u2019re taking this seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe everyone\u2019s here to get that ticket as well. We don\u2019t believe anyone\u2019s here to make up the numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the women\u2019s Olympic aspirations, it\u2019s Pretoria or bust.<\/p>\n

The men, however, will have another shot at qualifying if they don\u2019t make it in Pretoria, but it will be a far harder ask.<\/p>\n

The reason is the men are ranked 14th in the world, but the women are just outside the top 20, making them ineligible for the global qualification tournament.<\/p>\n

There has been concern about whether the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) will pick the hockey sides if they qualify \u2014 both were left home for the 2016 Rio Games.<\/p>\n

Sport minister Zizi Kodwa recently requested that Sascoc revisit its selection policy because he wanted a lean, medal-heavy team.<\/p>\n

But the word coming out of Sascoc is they will stick to the same selection criteria used for the Tokyo Olympics, where the men\u2019s and women\u2019s hockey sides competed.<\/p>\n

The players\u2019 biggest obstacles are what happens between now and next weekend.<\/p>\n

Eight teams are competing in the men\u2019s tournament, where Egypt is South Africa’s main rival, and seven in the women\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The tournament will feature two pools with teams progressing into knockout stages.<\/p>\n

SA group match schedules:<\/p>\n

Men: SA vs Zimbabwe (6pm Sunday); SA vs Nigeria (6pm Monday); SA vs Uganda (8pm Wednesday).<\/p>\n

Women: SA vs Zimbabwe (4pm Sunday); SA vs Nigeria (8pm Monday).<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Between them, the national men\u2019s and women\u2019s hockey teams have lost only once at an African Olympic qualifying tournament in the past 20 years, but both sides say they\u2019re taking nothing for granted at the 2023 edition in Pretoria from Sunday. Places at the 2024 Paris Games are available only for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":55567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-55569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nAfrican teams are tough, warn SA hockey teams before Games qualifier - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Between them, the national men\u2019s and women\u2019s hockey teams have lost only once at an African Olympic qualifying tournamen ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/african-teams-are-tough-warn-sa-hockey-teams-before-games-qualifier\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"African teams are tough, warn SA hockey teams before Games qualifier\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Between them, the national men\u2019s and women\u2019s hockey teams have lost only once at an African Olympic qualifying tournamen ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/african-teams-are-tough-warn-sa-hockey-teams-before-games-qualifier\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-26T16:19:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-26T16:52:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/10\/sm_1698326409.49844.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/african-teams-are-tough-warn-sa-hockey-teams-before-games-qualifier#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/african-teams-are-tough-warn-sa-hockey-teams-before-games-qualifier\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"African teams are tough, warn SA hockey teams before Games qualifier\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-26T16:19:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-26T16:52:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/african-teams-are-tough-warn-sa-hockey-teams-before-games-qualifier\"},\"wordCount\":754,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/african-teams-are-tough-warn-sa-hockey-teams-before-games-qualifier#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2023\/10\/sm_1698326409.49844.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/african-teams-are-tough-warn-sa-hockey-teams-before-games-qualifier#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/african-teams-are-tough-warn-sa-hockey-teams-before-games-qualifier\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/african-teams-are-tough-warn-sa-hockey-teams-before-games-qualifier\",\"name\":\"African teams are tough, warn SA hockey teams before Games qualifier - 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