Home Sport Happy to make the cut, now Charné is focused on Olympic challenge

Happy to make the cut, now Charné is focused on Olympic challenge

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Charné Maddocks is among South Africa’s 16-member national women’s hockey squad that will head out to the upcoming Olympic Games.

KIMBERLITE and former Northern Cape High pupil Charné Maddocks (22) is among South Africa’s 16-member national women’s hockey squad that will head out to Tokyo, Japan for the 2020 Olympic Games scheduled to be held from July 23 to August 8.

Her inclusion in the national squad was announced last week by the recently reconstituted SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) executive in Johannesburg.

She is currently studying towards an Honours degree in Special Needs Education at the North West University (NWU). She is also an active member of the university’s women’s hockey team.

Maddocks, who plays as a striker in the NWU team and may well assume that position in the national team, explained that she earned selection to the national hockey team through the annual Inter-provincial tournament which was held Bloemfontein in 2019. Meanwhile, as far back as 2016 while at Northern Cape High, she was named in the Under-18 provincial squad that was selected that year.

“I was selected from among players taking part in that (Inter-provincial) tournament into the SA senior ladies Olympic hockey squad of 46 players. Our preparations were disrupted by Covid and no further tournaments were held.

“The selectors continued with training of the 46 selected players and thereafter held a national camp in December in Johannesburg last year. The squad was trimmed from 46 to 28 players in January this year and I was part of that.

“Later in the year we were further cut down to 22 players from among whom I made the cut when the final team for Tokyo was announced,” she told the DFA.

Charné’s passion for hockey seems to be a passion that the family shares. Her brother Melrick has earned eight caps for the SA Outdoor Men’s team and three caps for the Indoor squad. He turns out for the Beaulieu Hockey Academy in Johannesburg.

The Olympic Games in Tokyo will be staged minus the hordes of adoring fans from all over the world after the International Olympic Committee banned spectators from overseas countries from all events in a bid to control the likely spread of the coronavirus.

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