By GRACE CHAILE –
At OYDC
ZAMBIA has qualified for to the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games despite coming second to South Africa after the Hockey Fives’s Africa qualifiers played at the Olympic Youth Development Centre (OYDC) in Lusaka.
South Africa won both the men and women teams events but will only need to field one team at the Youth Games.
According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules, a participating country can only field one team at the tournament thus giving Zambia the opportunity to send one team, either the men or women, to China.
But Zambia Hockey Association (ZHA) president Hazel Kennedy said a decision will be made later as to which team between the men or the women will be entered to represent the country at the Youth Olympics.
Kennedy expressed happiness at the performance of the two Zambian teams and also the overall organisation of the tournament.
On the field of play, South Africa beat Zambia in the men’s final 3-1 while the girls were given a 5-3 thumping as the hosts settled for silver.
South Africa lived up to their pre-tournament favourites tag to grab gold in the two events as Namibia finished third to claim silver in the women’s games while Kenya scooped bronze in the men’s tournament.
