Rocky preps for hockey team

Zimbabwe’s Under-21 women’s side had qualified for the event after placing third at the Junior Africa Cup in April, in Namibia.

Deputy Sports Editor

THROUGH their “athletes first” approach — mentioned in the recently launched Empowerment and Engagement Strategy — the Federation of International Hockey (FIH) have made youth a strong focal point, going forward.

It is for this reason that the federation seem to have spared no expense in preparing for a classy third edition of the FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup, which is scheduled for November 29 to December 10 at Chile’s newly renovated National Stadium.

Most of the 12 participating teams have been busy preparing for the competition.

Perennial campaigners England have competed in a four-nation tournament, New Zealand had a couple of sparring sessions with their senior team, while Argentina, hosts Chile and Canada all participated in the Junior Pan-American Championship in Barbados earlier this year.

But the same cannot be said about Zimbabwe’s Under-21 women’s team.

Zimbabwe qualified for the quadrennial tournament after finishing second at the Africa Junior Cup in Ismailia, Egypt, in March.

Since qualifying, Zimbabwe have failed to meet as a team, as most of the players are either still in school or are foreign-based.

“It has been rather tough, to be honest,” said Zimbabwe Under-21 coach Bradley Heuer.

“Most of our players are based overseas, while some are busy preparing for and sitting exams.

“This has made meeting as a group rather difficult, but we look to have found a way around this problem as we meet online often.

“The online meetings have proven to be helpful, as we have managed to keep tabs on all the players, organise them to have sessions with our team psychologists and send them crash programmes.”

Zimbabwe are expected to leave for Chile on November 19 and have a 10-day camp before the World Cup starts.

A couple of scrimmage matches have been organised for the team, with the girls expected to play Chile, Canada and South Africa.

Heuer has also taken time to study the team’s opponents.

Zimbabwe are in Pool B — alongside Argentina, the Republic of Korea and Spain.

“Yeah, we know a lot about Argentina and expect the South Americans to be our biggest test in the group,” added Heuer.

“However, we watched a lot of their games and should be up to the task come the World Cup.

“It is more or less the same with Spain, who are former European champions.

“Korea are likely to be the dark horses of our group as we know that they are a well-trained and disciplined outfit.

“We will be prepared for all three teams.”

However, it has not been all gloom and doom for the team.

Most of the players have been active at their bases.

Locally based ones have been meeting twice a week for training sessions, as and when available.