Hockey

New Zealand too strong for PNG

Five goals from Sam Lane helped to set up a comfortable win for the Vantage Black Sticks, who will now face the Kookaburras in today’s final.

It will be the same in the women’s final with Australia to take on New Zealand.

The draw for the final:

Sunday, October 15

Women's gold medal match: 3pm

Men's gold medal match: 5:30pm

Held every two years, the Oceania Cup is the continental championship for the Oceania region.

PNG teams whipped at Oceania Cup

On Wednesday, the women felt the full force of the Vantage Black Sticks of New Zealand, receiving a 33-0 hiding, while the men were hammered 30-0 by the Australian Kookaburras.

Last night, the Hockeyroos cruised over the PNG women, with a 23-0 win to qualify for Sunday’s Oceania Cup Final.

Australia’s men’s team also claimed their spot in the final after downing New Zealand, 5-1 on Thursday.

The draw for tomorrow:

Men's - 3pm: PNG v NZ

Women's - 5pm: NZ v AUS

The finals will be held this Sunday.

Rio 2016: Quotes of the Games

Following two weeks of thrilling sports action, we take a look at some of the more memorable quotes from Rio 2016.

 

Words to inspire

Number of interested hockey participants doubles

This morning, the number of participants doubled from last week’s.

The 10-week program has entered its fourth weekend today, with children set into groups.

Advanced learners were put into one group while beginners who just joined today were placed in another.

One of the Minkey program facilitators and coach, Edmund Tapo, told Loop PNG that the key focus of the program and development is to teach children core skills such as passing, receiving and ball carrying (dribbling). These skills can be taught in isolation then put into a game situation.

​ Bismarks thump Globals with 6-0 victory

The first few minutes at Sir John Guise stadium were notable for a number of fumbles by each side, but Bismarks were too good with their passing game, which saw them pick up the first goal with a real shot on goal to open the scoreboard.

Globals were forced to defend an early power-play when Bismark’s struck again with two added goals for a 3-0 lead.

Minutes before half-time, Bismarks managed to squeeze the puck through the Global defence for their fourth, which sprawled Globals defenders to a 4-0 at half-time.

Hockey Gold medal play offs today

And history will be made for the Vanuatu men’s team who play off for Gold for the first time in history of the Hockey Oceania Federation.

This is the first time hockey is played at the Pacific Games, the only international events the code was involved in are the Oceania games and Arafura games.

PNG men suffer 10-1 drubbing in hockey

The Fijians proved they are number one in the Oceania region hockey maintaining their dominance in the competition with their third straight win.

And they did a good job keeping the local team scoreless in the first two periods of match.

The Fijians registered their first score in the first minute of the game from Terrence Corrie.

The local boys missed a lot of opportunities to score in the first period with hits either too wide or high against the fierce Fijian team.

International hockey boss promises more competition in PNG

“Yes, my first trip here, I’m very pleased and also to be here for the Pacific Games is very important for FIH to follow these championships are very important.

“The turf is fantastic, yeah. Its like the Olympic pitch in London, we are very pleased, here you have a full nice venue and after talking with the Minister of Sports we are very glad because we have a plan to allocate here a lot of hockey tournaments,” said the Spaniard.

Hockey makes a return to the Pacific Games after a lapse of 36 years. It was last competed at the 1979 South Pacific Games in Suva, Fiji.

Vanuatu cruise past hockey new chums Tonga

Despite a spirited display by Tonga, who have not participated in Pacific Games hockey before, Vanuatu ran out comfortable 21-1 winners in the men’s match.

Vanuatu captain Hiro Namu gave credit to his opponents despite the one-sided nature of the contest.

“The Tongans played tough, but I was pleased with our performance – the boys played well,” Namu said.

“The Tongans were not a challenge because this is their first time to play hockey in the Pacific Games. They were not strong but it was good experience and I praise their good sportsmanship.

Vanuatu beats Tonga in 2nd hockey match

The third ranking country in the  Pacific islands, Vanuatu,  gave newcomers Tonga an upsetting 20 point margin, winning 21-1.

Vanuatu scored 5 points to Tonga 1 in the first 15 minutes of the match.

The second period of the match saw Vanuatu taking advantage of the inexperienced Tonga side, scoring more to boost the lead  to 15-1.

They maintained their lead with 6 more points in the last 15 minute period, preventing the newcomers who only had 3 months of games preparation from scoring and won the match 21-1.

Matches will continue after lunch.