Hannah to lead Aussies at worlds

AFTER 15 consecutive Australian championships and 15 medals — seven of them gold — Hobart player Hannah Robert-Tissot has risen to the top of underwater hockey.

The 30-year-old centre-forward celebrated her fourth consecutive gold medal for the Tasmanian women’s elite team at the national championships last weekend by being named captain of the Australian team for the world championships on the Gold Coast this year.

The national team is all Tasmanian players except for one West Australian.

“It’s very exciting,” she said of her new role. “I’ve been vicecaptain and I was co-captain for the last worlds, so this is the first time I’ve had the full responsibility. It’s big shoes to fill but we’ve got a really promising young team and I’m really excited about the players we’ve got to take to the world championships. We’ve got a really good chance.”

Tasmania played 10 games and lost to Western Australia in its round-robin match and beat WA 3-1 in the grand final.

“There was a national team from New Zealand, which wasn’t eligible to win the gold medal, and we played a bonus game against them after the final,” Robert-Tissot said.

“It was a really close game against New Zealand, who are the former world champions.”

She said Tasmania’s strength in the sport was that its best players are in Hobart.

“We are the only state that has a club-level pennant, which is really good for developing a positive competition, a school pennant that brings in the next generation, and a social pennant on Wednesdays,” Robert-Tissot said.

“The women’s program has a couple of excellent coaches. David Lambert was Australian men’s coach for many years and he took us to three gold medals, and Nathan Whelan, the Australian women’s coach and he has coached the Tasmanian women to four gold medals.”