The NWU Astroturf is currently hosting the South African men’s Olympic Hockey team as they pre-pare for the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo from 23 July to 8 August.

Photos: Tian du Preez

The South Africans played a couple of matches against the SA u.21 men’s team in the CTM series at the North-West University from 16 to 20 June, in preparation for the massive challenge of the Olympic Games. The SA senior squad won all four matches last week and are in good spirits heading into the Olympics.

SA national men’s captain, Tim Drummond, was pleased with how the week went in Potchefstroom.

“We have not been able to play together in the past two years, so this was a chance to build the connections once again. It’s valuable that we can get game time going into an important tournament. We know other teams have had more practice. “There are huge lessons for us and it’s about being as prepared as possible going to Tokyo. “We want to make South Africa proud,” he stated in an interview with NWU Sports.

The SA squad features some experienced regulars, like the goalkeeper, Rassie Pieterse, defender, Austin Smith and youngsters like the Cassiem brothers, Mustapha and Daayan. SA will be up against The Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Germany and Great Britain in Pool B at the Olympics as they bid for a quarter-final spot. The series also gave the SA u.21 team a good amount of necessary game time in a year where they want to qualify for the Junior World Cup with qualifiers taking place in Namibia this coming August.

Series results:

Day 1: SA men’s 4 – 1 SA u.21

Day 2: SA men’s 6 – 1 SA u.21

Day 3: SA men’s 7 – 3 SA u.21

Day 4: SA men’s 4 – 3 SA u.21.