Both the South African men’s and women’s hockey teams secured their places at the 2024 Paris Olympics after emerging victorious in their respective continental qualifying tournament finals in Pretoria on Sunday.
The women were in fine form as they trounced Nigeria 9-0, while the men clinched a 2-1 victory over Egypt in a tense match that was settled by Ryan Julius’ decisive goal.
Tarryn Lombard, who finished the tournament as top scorer, bagged a hat-trick alongside goals from Jean-Leigh du Toit, Quanita Bobbs, Bianca Wood, Taheera Augousti, Paris-Gail Isaacs and Kristen Paton to complete a 9-0 thrashing.
Super South Africa qualify for the Paris Olympic Gameshttps://t.co/JWFQG372um#EnRouteToParis #HockeyInvites #MotiMoves pic.twitter.com/Bd4FswlZHM
— SA Hockey (@SA_Hockey) November 5, 2023
On the men’s side, Matthew Guise-Brown opened the scoring to put SA 1-0 up, but Egypt replied through Hossam Ghobran’s goal to equalise.
A video referral ruled out an Egypt goal in the second half and kept South Africa alive as Julius pounced on a through-pass by Mustapha Cassiem to snatch victory in the final quarter.
South Africa qualify for Paris Olympics after tense finalhttps://t.co/NxgJ96nznL#HockeyInvites #EnRouteToParis pic.twitter.com/ITybdbX7yg
— SA Hockey (@SA_Hockey) November 5, 2023
Huge celebrations in the nations capital as the @sawomenshockey and @SA_Hockey mens teams beat #Egypt and #Nigeria respectively at @UPTuks in #Pretoria to earn spots at the #Paris2024 @Olympics #EnRoutetoParis #HockeyInvites pic.twitter.com/i5tFZ8118u
— Mr Bubbles ala Brucey Baby (@bruceybld) November 6, 2023