Black Sticks Women Coach Mark Hager pragmatic for 2012 London Olympics
Despite securing the first ever bronze medal in the recently-concluded Champions Trophy, Mark Hager, the coach of the women’s hockey team of New Zealand, is quite hard-headed about the upcoming 2012 London Olympics.
Apart from the other aspects of the maiden medal, it also raised the hopes of people about Black Sticks women for the upcoming mega event.
In his views, the race in hunt for 2012 London Olympics’ Gold medal is wide open and everyone has a chance to do win it. A positive state of mind, bit of confidence and a little bit fortune will be the perfect recipe for winning the title in the mega games.
Though the Black Sticks created a new chapter in the history of sport by clinching the first ever medal. He also boosted the spirit of the team asking it to improve its game as per the modern standards. In his views, they were not quite impressive in the
second period of the final play-off game.
The chief trainer was of the opinion that the Netherlands and Argentina, the winner and runner up teams, were sitting far ahead from them. However, they reduced the distance by getting a third place in the eight-nation tournament.
The most interesting part of the event was that the younger players produced outstanding games. The newly inducted girls did not leave the game on the shoulders on the senior players, including Kayla Sharland, Emily Naylor and Krystal Forgesson, but struggled
hard to overcome the opponents.
The coach was of the opinion, “We had a real team performance, rather than an individual one this time. All the young ones had to put in as well and it was fantastic they were able to do it. They love to have a go, they love to score goals, they're very
competitive and they don't like losing.”
The extensive efforts of Hager delivered results and the position of the New Zealand’s women increased up to sixth in the world ranking. Before his joining, they were not included in the first ten teams. Under his training, the Black Sticks won a silver
medal in the Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi, while a bronze in the just-finished FIH Champions Trophy.
The Black Sticks women are scheduled to partake in the National Hockey League that will help the coach to finalise the 25-member preliminary team for the 2012 London Olympic Games. Following that they will hold a bilateral series against USA and Oceania
Cup in the last quarter of the 2011.
The Oceania Cup will serve as the Qualifying tournament of the Olympic Games. To get the two direct tickets to the London Games, Australia and New Zealand are the strong contenders in the Oceania Cup.
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