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Sports Reporter

THE National Under-21 women’s hockey team were left disappointed following the postponement of the FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup that was scheduled for South Africa.

Sixteen countries were set to converge in Potchefstroom, for the event, which was due to run from December 5 to 16.

According to the International Hockey Federation the event cannot go ahead, under the prevailing Covid-19 circumstances.

And, they reached the decision to put the competition on hold, together with the South African Hockey Association, and the North-West University of Potchefstroom.

The decision was announced on Friday.

“The safety of everyone involved in the FIH events is an absolute priority,’’ FIH chief executive, Thierry Weil, said.

“Additionally, many countries, including from some of the participating teams, have now strongly increased their travel restrictions with South Africa, including halting flights.

“Therefore, it simply isn’t possible to maintain this event as planned.

“This is hugely disappointing.

“An FIH Junior World Cup is so important for the development of young players. Also, it was the first time that an FIH World Cup was due to take place on African soil.

“On behalf of FIH, I’d like to thank all teams for their understanding as well as the local organisers for their great work and collaboration”

Some of the players, such as Mufaro Mazambani, who is based in the United States, arrived in the country last week, hoping to join the rest of the team in camp.

Team manager, Florence Mhasho, said it has been a difficult time for the players, who sacrificed a lot, to prepare for the competition.

“The camp was called off. We checked out of camp this morning (yesterday), we got the news on Friday, the 26th of November, that the World Cup has been postponed to a date that FIH will advise.

“So, we are waiting to hear from the FIH what date it’s going to be on.

“It was very sombre in our camp.

“I mean there are a lot of girls that had sacrificed their time and effort and, some came back from University.

“Our last player came in on the 24th because she had exams on the 23rd and we have also got a player (Mazambani) who came from America, she arrived on Tuesday, to get into camp on Friday.

Zimbabwe were drawn in Pool A, together with the Netherlands, Korea and Ireland.