Kookaburras into Tokyo Olympics
AUSTRALIA’S men’s hockey team romped to a dominant 3-0 victory over New Zealand on Sunday to secure automatic qualification to next year’s Olympic Games.
The Kookaburras’ smooth path to Tokyo 2020 had been diverted to a qualifying series decider after a 2-2 stalemate against the Black Sticks in the second of the best-of-three Oceania Cup series the day before.
But Tim Brand and Blake Govers struck in the opening quarter to put the host nation in command of the finale in Rockhampton before the latter added a third with a neat drag flick two minutes from time to clinch victory and send the world’s top-ranked side to Japan.
“We’re very happy with the result,” said Kookaburras coach Colin Batch.
“New Zealand were really competitive over the three games, we had a real battle with them yesterday but today we took our game to another level, so it’s very pleasing to finish with that result.
“I think after a down game, if you can call it that, you always come out firing. I think there was strong motivation to finish well, qualify and win the Oceania Cup.
“We pride ourselves on playing the last game really tralian Fisheries ( PIRSA 08 8226 0995) to be told that as long as spearfishermen are not using any underwater breathing apparatus like hookahs or scuba gear, and have a dive flag displayed, they are not breaking the law, as hazardous an activity as this might appear. well and I think we saw that today. It was a very even performance by the team, very connected and we got the result.”
Batch was delighted his side was able to lock in direct qualification for next year’s Games without having to go through the uncertainty of a twolegged qualifying round.
“We played a lot of Pro League this year and we played really well in that but it’s not a qualification, so this was our first opportunity to do it and I think it was really important to qualify here rather than go through another qualifier,” he said.
I rang Marine Safety in South Australia who reaffirmed that using jetskis for offshore spearfishing is allowed provided existing rules of the sea are followed and that craft must slow to no more than four knots within 50 metres of swimmers.