SA u17 girls chasing glory at Dato Mirnawan Cup
After finishing fourth at the Dato Mirnawan Cup in Malaysia in 2023, the South African u17 girls’ hockey team enters this year’s event focused on being in the mix for the silverware.
The competition, which is in its third year, runs from 1-10 November in Kuala Lumpur.
Stay glued to SuperSport Schools Plus for all the updates.
In 2023, coach Omari Pienaar-Geyer’s side won three of their six matches, beating Malaysia A, Malaysia B, and India. However, in the bronze medal match, the Indians reversed their earlier defeat, scoring a 2-0 win.
A new crop of talent, co-captained by Jehan Abrahams and Amber Fairon, with Caprice Bengtson serving as the vice-captain, will be flying the flag of the Rainbow Nation.
That trio participated in last year’s Mirnawan Cup and will carry with them valuable lessons learnt from that experience.
The dangerous Abrahams plies her trade for Wynberg Girls’ High and represented Western Province during the u18 SASHOC National Week.
Fairon is a product of Dainfern College and played for the Southern Gauteng team that won the u18 title at the SASHOC National Week for the first time in 14 years; meanwhile, Bengston will be flying the Durban Girls’ College and KZN Coastal flag high in Malaysia.
Eastern Province has three representatives, including Diocesan School for Girls‘ Holderness sisters, Lucy and Abigail, who have jumped on the plane with Collegiate Girls’ High star, Emihle Mazomba.
Apart from skipper Abrahams, Western Province will be represented by Chelsey McGregor (St Cyprian’s School) and Peyton Marais from Curro Durbanville.
Boland, on the other hand, has the most representatives, with five players. They include three – Sarah-Ellen Groenewald, Grace Hobbs, and Philippa Viljoen – from the Fairtree Super 12-winning Rhenish Girls’ High. They are joined by the Paarl Gimnasium duo of Alanda Rademeyer and Karli van Deventer.
For KZN Coastal, it’s Bengston, Chelsey Woolf, and Asanele Zuma from Durban Girls’ College, and Sibabalwe Mfazwe, from St Mary’s DSG (Kloof).
Southern Free State‘s Kirstin Booysen, from Oranje, and Northern Gauteng’s Lenique Vogel, who like the team’s coach Omari Geyer-Pienaar, hails from Hoërskool Waterkloof. complete the squad.
SuperSport Schools Plus caught up with head coach Pienaar-Geyer ahead of the tournament to discuss the team’s preparations.
“The team is feeling really excited and optimistic ahead of our hockey tour to Malaysia,” she said.
“We’ve been training hard, both as a team and individually, and we are excited to showcase our skills on an international stage.
“There’s a great sense of team spirit, excitement, and determination among the players, and we’re all looking forward to the adventure, challenges, and opportunities that this tour will bring us.”
In an attempt to improve on last year’s fourth-place finish, and taking lessons learnt from that tournament, the team has adopted different methods of preparation, including training at a high intensity in hot conditions.
Pienaar-Geyer said 2023’s experiences have equipped her charges to compete well in Malaysia.
“I think we are a lot more prepared than last year,” she explained. “We have had the opportunity to play as a team, and that’s something I feel would have been really beneficial for last year’s team.
“Also, with having experience from last year, it was a lot easier for us to get across to the girls the extreme conditions we would be playing in, which has been so helpful in mentally preparing the team.
“In comparison to last year, we have had a lot more structured training schedule and high-performance plan, which has the girls feeling confident and ready, which we lacked last year. Overall, the girls are fit and ready to take on Malaysia.”
Emulating the SA u17 boys’ team, which will do battle in the same tournament, the girls have set their sights high.
“As a team we have goals: firstly to go and compete, not to just participate,” Geyer-Pienaar said.
“I would say [we’re] putting ourselves outside of our comfort zone and gradually building our team’s confidence much higher than what it is and hoping to bring home the gold when we’ve played well and ticked all of our personal and team goals.
“The ideal goal would be to do better than fourth place last year,” she concluded.
South Africa u17 Girls Squad
Jehan Abrahams, Chelsey McGregor, Peyton Marais (Western Province), Caprice Bengston, Sibabalwe Mfazwe, Chelsey Woolf, Asanele Zuma (KZN Coastal), Kirstin Booysen (Southern Free State), Amber Fairon (Southern Gauteng), Sarah-Ellen Groenewald, Philippa Viljoen, Grace Hobbs, Alanda Rademeyer, Karli van Deventer (Boland), Lucy Holderness, Emihle Mazomba, Abigail Holderness (Eastern Province), Lenique Vogel (Northern Tigers).
Staff
Manager: Pearl Mashego
Head Coach: Omari Pienaar-Geyer
Assistant Coach: Chardinay Penniston
Video Analyst: Jamie Smith
Group Y: South Africa, Japan, Malaysia Tigers.
Group Fixtures
3 November
20:00 – South Africa vs Malaysia Tigers
5 November
18:00 – South Africa vs Japan
