The tournament proceeded with three countries; Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Both the SPAR South Africa indoor women’s team and the South Africa hockey men’s team powered by Tops SPAR, were awarded 5-0 forfeit victories on the opening day of the tournament on Friday.
The decision came after Botswana was unable to honour the fixture due to the travel difficulties.
According to tournament regulations, the games were awarded to South African team with a 5-0 score line.
The team captain, Thoriso Bogwasi, told SportMonitor that the team left Gaborone by road to Namibia on Friday and along the way their vehicle had many break downs. He said that meant they arrived at MTC Dome, which is the venue of the tournament late and hence the disqualification. “Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do but to proceed and honour the fixtures but it was late.
The organisers could not wait for us. So, instead of just sitting and watching from the stands, we took advantage and played the games as part of practice for upcoming tournaments this season,” he said. The Indoor Africa Cup came to end yesterday with South Africa and Namibia reaching the finals, a match that was expected to have impact chances of qualifying for the International Hockey Federation (FIH) World Cup.
Meanwhile, South Africa remains the only country in Southern Africa, which has qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. South Africa men and women secured their slots during the African Hockey Road to Paris 2024 Games that they hosted in November. During the competition, South African women team were the first to win the gold medal, defeating Nigeria with a huge margin of 9-0 during the finals. The men’s side faced Egypt in the final and escaped with a narrow victory of 2-1. Egypt will now move on to the FIH Hockey Olympic qualifiers 2024 where they will get a second opportunity to qualify for the Olympics.
