Published on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 by Gally

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Article in Daily Dispatch East London
2010/02/23

IT WAS a double triumph for South Africa in their African Youth Olympic Qualifier hockey encounters in East London yesterday. Both the girls and boys came away from their clashes with victories at opposite ends of the city.

At Bunkers Hill, the girls edged out Namibia 2-1 in a hard-fought match at Kat Leisure Park and, although, it must be said South Africa had more than their fair share of chances to win this one pretty comfortably, their finishing failed to add extra sheen to the final score.

The SA boys had a few nervous moments against a fiery Zimbabwean side brimming with bravado, but who steamed to a stuttering halt in the second stanza at Buffalo Flats astroturf. Although tipped to easily overcome the Namibia challenge, SA’s lasses had an early scare when Namibia went ahead through Tegan Rix in the third minute of the match.

It was the start Namibia needed, but led by the nippy Jenna-Leigh du Preez, the South Africans recoiled nine minutes later when Buffalo Flats’ star, Tiffany Jones, clinically finished a move started down the left flank to level 1-1.

With Namibia barely catching their breath, SA were quickly off on another surging run and Kirsty Gibbings produced the goods in the 17th minute to make it 2-1.

Namibia had hope of staying in the hunt, but against the solid defence of Bronwynn Kretzmann and clever play by Sarah Ives it was obvious SA were in the ascendancy.

A number of clear chances went awry with the scoreline somehow flattering a brave, but outplayed Namibia.

The SA boys got the start they needed when in the fifth minute Grant Glutz swerved his way through a hesitant Zimbabwean defence and struck past keeper Shane Stone.

It did not faze the Zimbabweans though and they pressed hard throughout the first half as the game bubbled with excitement.

EL product, Ignatius Malgraff, scored seconds before the hooter to give SA a rather fortunate 2-0 lead.

After the break it all went pear-shaped for Zimbabwe, as the South Africans added three more goals with Glutz, Chad Cairncross and Curtis Samboer getting in on the act.

In other matches, Ghana edged out Zimbabwe 2-0 in a girls group clash, while in the boys section, Ghana beat Namibia 6-0 and Egypt whipped Kenya 5-0. – By KARIEM HASSAN

TODAY’S FIXTURES:

Girls: 12:00pm, Zimbabwe v Namibia (Kat Leisure); 1pm, Kenya v South Africa (Buffalo Flats)

Boys: 2pm, Kenya v Zimbabwe (Kat Leisure); 3pm, Namibia v Egypt (Buffalo Flats); 4pm, Ghana v South Africa (Kat Leisure).