History made as SA women advance into Indoor Hockey World Cup semis, SA men bow out

South Africa’s women’s hockey team made history on Friday after becoming the first African nation to reach the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup semi-finals after defeating Belgium 2-1 in Tshwane.

However, SA’s men’s team, who had already reached their best-ever tournament stage, bowed out in the quarter-finals to the Netherlands 6-3, after going down 5-0 at half-time.

On a day when they celebrated Jess Lardant reaching 50 appearances for the national team, SA’s women’s side became the toast of the evening on Friday following their historic achievement.

SA had built their tournament run on the back of a gritty defence, arguably the strongest at the tournament.

But they came out firing on the attack in the early exchanges and may have taken an early lead had Kayla de Waal not shot narrowly wide.

The hosts were on top and got their dues when their opening goal came through captain fantastic Jessica O’Connor.

A historical moment in South African Sporting history as the SPAR South Africa womens Indoor hockey team earned Africa's first ever World Cup Semi-Final. The Emotions were high. We are Proudly South African#IHWC2023 pic.twitter.com/Yi4HuA1dpJ

SA won a penalty corner, took it from the reverse side and produced a sensational strike from the skipper to open the scoring.

De Waal had a couple of chances but the second goal came from the stick of tournament star Tegan Fourie.

The ball was passed through every player on the court and a reverse pass by Lardant opened the Belgian defence up.

It connected with Fourie, who took the space on offer to fire home. At the half-time break, the South Africans were full value for their 2-0 lead.

In the third quarter, SA looked more likely to add to the scoreboard as Jamie Southgate fired a shot