By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit: Frank Uijlenbroek.
Australia came from behind to beat South Africa 2-1 in the southern hemisphere’s teams’ opening matches at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium in Paris.
Australia, fifth in the women’s hockey world rankings, were forced to make a change ahead of the opening fixture. Alice Arnott suffered from calf soreness since arriving in Paris and it paved the way for Maddison Brooks to enter the squad.
The Pool B contest between the Hockeyroos and the 18th-ranked South Africa women’s hockey team began with Australia going on the charge. Grace Stewart drew a save from opposition keeper Anelle Lloyd inside the first minute.
However, the opposition roared back into the game and consistently tested the Hockeyroos defence. Australian goalkeeper Jocelyn Bartram made a save off Dirkie Chamberlain in the 11th minute but South Africa took the lead four minutes later thanks to Kayla de Waal.
The Hockeyroos restored parity in the first minute of the second quarter with Stephanie Kershaw finding the net to make it 1-1. Australia were all over South Africa in the second quarter but failed to make two penalty corners count.
Amy Lawton and Grace Stewart also came close to scoring but failed to take the lead as Australia went into the half-time break tied at 1-1.
The Hockeyroos finally took the lead in the third quarter. The Australian defence thwarted three successive penalty corner attempts from the South African hockey team and went on to score from their own penalty corner. This time, Tatum Stewart pulled the trigger for the Hockeyroos.
The third quarter came to a close with Onthatile Zulu coming close but Bartram held her ground to protect the one-goal lead.
The fourth quarter had little action as the Australian hockey team comfortably held on to their lead to secure a 2-1 victory over South Africa in their Paris 2024 campaign opener.
The Hockeyroos will face Tokyo 2020 bronze medallists Great Britain next in the group stage of the Paris 2024 Olympics women’s hockey tournament on Tuesday.
“We are disappointed to not have earned the result. We fought hard and put in a massive performance. We put out a marker and we competed with a very good side. I am very proud of my team and we will go work on the points that we need to ahead of the next game.” SA Captain Erin Christie.
South Africa’s next game is against Argentina, on Monday at 17:30.
South Africa Pool B Group Stage Fixtures and Results
Sun 28 Jul – Australia 2-1 South Africa
Mon 29 Jul – South Africa v Argentina
Wed 31 Jul – South Africa v Great Britain
Thu 1 Aug – South Africa v Spain
Sat 3 Aug – South Africa v United States of America.
RUGBY
The Springbok Women’s Sevens team finished their 34-5 defeat against Australia with a strong second half surge in their opening match of the Rugby Sevens event of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
SWIMMING
Women’s 100m breaststroke, heats: Tatjana Smith won her heat in 1:05.00, which is only 0.18sec off her Olympic record set in Tokyo. She qualified fastest for the evening’s semi-finals
Men’s 100m backstroke, heats: Pieter Coetze finished 2nd in his heat in 52.90sec. This saw him qualify second fastest for the evening semi-finals
Women’s 200m freestyle, heats (12.12pm): Aimee Canny finished 5th in her heat in 1:57.81. This placed her 14th fastest overall to qualify for the semi-finals