Saints Staff on the Road to Tokyo Olympics

January 28, 2020 | Girls’ Preparatory, Girls’ College | Author: Lenise Marais, GC Director of Sport

Prestigious selection for SuperGroup SA Women’s Hockey Team

Our very own members of staff, Mrs Sylvia van Jaarsveldt (Girls’ College) and Ms Mmatshepo Modipane (Girls’ Preparatory) have been selected for the SuperGroup South African Women’s Hockey team that will be vying for selection for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games. The team has begun an extremely busy seven-month period that will prepare them for the Tokyo Olympics. Also with them is Mr Robin van Ginkel (Director of Hockey and Head of Sport Science for the Campus).

The year started off at St Stithians College for 40 squad members who assembled for a training and selection camp. From this camp, 22 players were selected to travel to Stellenbosch for the International Summer Series, hosted by Stellenbosch University, Western Province Hockey and the South African Hockey Association, currently underway. The Summer Series will be contested by Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands U21 team, the SA U21 Invitational team and SuperGroup South Africa. This is an exciting opportunity to gain experience and work on team tactics for Tokyo 2020, particularly as Germany and Ireland are in the same group as SuperGroup SA in the opening stages of the Olympics. We are extremely proud of our staff members’ achievements and wish them and their teammates luck for this event and the next phase of selection towards the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.