Beltz now Tokyo chance
Coronavirus shutdown gives local hero another shot at the Olympics
HE runs 28km a week, studies mechanical engineering, and lives on the other side of Australia.
That’s life in lockdown for Tasmanian hockey star Josh Beltz.
The 25-year-old from Hobart has 41 caps for the Kookaburras men’s nation team and doesn’t know when his next one is coming — that will depend on international border restrictions.
The cap he wants most is waiting for him at the Olympic Games in Tokyo next year, and the courageous defender says in that respect the coronavirus crisis has done him a favour.
“The Olympics being postponed is a good thing for me as far as getting a spot in the team,” Beltz said.
“It gives me another 12 months to prove myself and find a spot.
“There was a [Kookaburras] tour going to Europe [in April] that I wasn’t going to be a part of, so that was going to make the Olympics this year a hard task.
“It has given me an opportunity individually to have another crack at it, and as a team another 12 months is really beneficial because we’re a young group with a lot of improving to do.
“In another 12 months we will be all the better for it.”
Only 14 of the Kookaburras squad of 27 stayed at the elite training centre in Perth, including Beltz and his Tasmanian teammate Jack Welch, while fellow-Tasmanian and national captain Eddie Ockenden elected to see out the pandemic in Hobart.
“Jack and I are family friends from before the hockey even started,” Beltz said.
Beltz stayed put for his studies and his girlfriend Hilary, also from Hobart, works as a doctor in a Perth hospital, where she tested patients for coronavirus.
It was strange days indeed for
Beltz when the coronavirus first hit.
“We found out one morning the Olympics had been postponed and we were on an indefinite break,” he said.
“There was a period where there was no expectation on us from a physical standpoint. They basically said for four or five weeks just go and be normal.
“They said they’d get back to us when they knew more about health advice and border restrictions.
“I was still able to go out for a run and got a lot of enjoyment from going for longer bike rides with Jack and some of the guys over here.
“They gave us a program with a target of how many kilometres we had to do in a week.
“We’re back at training now but before that it was a lot of short running and change of direction work to get us back to full training.”
Australia has won a medal at every Olympic Games since Barcelona in 1992, including gold in Athens in 2004, so a berth on the
Tokyo team would be just what the doctor ordered. Game No. 42 for the Kookaburras might lay over the Tasman Sea. “There’s a possibility we could play New Zealand toward the end of the year,” he said.
“That’s purely going off the fact that NZ and Australia are doing well on the coronavirus side of things.
“There’s definitely no guarantee there will be any games for the rest of this year and no one is sure what the international program will even look like next year.”
THE OLYMPICS BEING POSTPONED IS A GOOD THING FOR ME AS FAR AS GETTING A SPOT IN THE TEAM. IT GIVES ME ANOTHER 12 MONTHS TO PROVE MYSELF AND FIND A SPOT JOSH BELTZ