Zimbabwe: Women Hockey Team Thrash Uganda

By Ellina Mhlanga

Senior Sports Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S senior women's field hockey team put up an impressive performance yesterday to hammer Uganda 5-0 in their second Pool A match at the on-going Africa Cup of Nations at Theodosia Okoh Hockey Stadium in Accra, Ghana.

Both teams went into yesterday's game chasing for a win after losing their first matches on day one, on Monday.

It was a good recovery for Zimbabwe, who were coming from a 3-0 defeat at the hands of defending champions and neighbours South Africa on Monday.

Zimbabwe took a 2-0 lead in the second quarter after a goalless first quarter to go into half time ahead of their opponents.

Youngster Tinodiwanashe Elijah gave Zimbabwe the lead in the 28th minute before Natalie Terblanche weighed in with the second goal two minutes later.

Uganda managed to hold Zimbabwe in the third quarter with some good defence but the latter were not done yet as they went on to get three more goals in the last quarter.

Nicolle Grant scored the third goal for Zimbabwe in the 47th minute and Terblanche got her second goal in the 52nd minute. The fifth goal came from Lillian Pope in the 60th minute.

Zimbabwe's captain, Mary Houghton, who rallied the team to pick themselves up after Monday's defeat, was happy with the outcome of yesterday's game.

"We had a lot of opportunities which we didn't take. But we are glad to get some goals, finally, and we are happy with the win.

"So we have Namibia next. So we are going back to the drawing board, focus on them, watch their game against South Africa today and take some notes and see how we can deal with them," Houghton said.

Namibia were set to take on South Africa later in the day yesterday.

Zimbabwe are chasing a podium finish at the Africa Cup of Nations and the victory against Uganda was a huge boost for the Patricia Davies-coached side.

They take a rest today before they face Namibia in their last Pool A game tomorrow. Davies is expecting a competitive game against Namibia as she pointed out that they are a good side as well.

"That's going to be a big contest for both of us I think. They (Namibia) are also a good side like South Africa," said Davies.

Davies, who was impressed by the team's performance yesterday, will be hoping for another positive result.

"They played really good hockey today. I was very pleased with the performance. Everything we planned came together today.

"Our short corners need a little bit of work, though," said Davies.

In their last meeting, Zimbabwe emerged winners against Namibia and will be hoping to have the upper hand again when they face each other tomorrow.

Zimbabwe coach, Davies, is a member of the "Golden Girls", who wrote their own piece of history at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games in the then Soviet Union (now Russia) where they won the country's first gold medal at the world's biggest sporting jamboree. Zimbabwe went on to win two more gold medals at the Olympic Games through swimming icon Kirsty Coventry at the 2004 Athens Games in Greece and 2008 Beijing Games in China.

In fact, Zimbabwean athletes have won a total of eight medals at the Olympic Games -- three golds, four silvers and one bronze -- in two sports. Seven medals were won by swimmer Coventry in 2004 and 2008; the remaining medal was the result of a victory by the women's national field hockey team in 1980.

This article originally appeared on The Herald

Photo: The Herald