adminEllina Mhlanga
Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE Under-21 women’s field hockey team captain Jorja Jones has challenged her teammates to up their game ahead of the FIH Hockey Junior World Cup.
The Under-21s will be making their fourth appearance at the Women’s Junior World Cup to be staged in Santiago, Chile, from December 6 to 17.
The junior side are still in a celebratory mood. However, Jones is aware they need to step up and bring their A-game if they are to leave a mark at the global tournament.
Jones said they need to be positive and believe in themselves.
“An increased intensity of training, mental and physical from now until we depart will need to be a priority for every player both on an individual level as well as within the team.
“It is going to be a big jump from the Junior Africa Cup to the World Cup stage. So our players will need to have a positive mind-set and belief in themselves as well as be ready for the huge commitment it is going to take to get us there.
“In the words of Colin Power ‘A dream does not become a reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work’ and I will even add another word to that sentence and it is, believe!
“Our financial support sadly dictates a lot of our preparation, so we have to work within these boundaries.
“A lot of our players also play for the senior women’s side who have some tournaments coming up and hopefully this experience will continue to filter back into the Under-21 sides,” said Jones.
Jones believes their recent qualification for the World Cup is an indication of the strides being made locally in the sport.
“For Zimbabwe hockey, this shows that we are continuing to go from strength to strength in our development of players now and in the future.
“We are making strides in all areas of hockey in Zimbabwe and the fact that we are beginning to host tournaments in Zimbabwe and even attend tournaments outside of the country is a showcase in itself the progression we are making as a country in the sport,” said Jones.
Zimbabwe hosted the Central South Africa qualifier for the African Games last year in Harare. They were joined by Malawi, Namibia and Zambia.
The top two teams from each category qualified for the continental event and Zimbabwe won the finals in both sections to qualify.
Some of the junior players are involved with the senior women’s team and will be hoping the experience will come in handy as they prepare for their next assignment.
Hockey Association of Zimbabwe secretary-general Sarah Bennett said they would want to keep the momentum going.
“Obviously we want to keep this momentum going across both genders of our sport and it comes at a cost and it’s trying to find the finances, able to do it, achieve it and maintain it.
“So as the Hockey Association of Zimbabwe that’s our main aim, to keep the momentum going, the growth going, the development going, the grassroots growing and then take it from there,” said Bennett.
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