While the Olympic Games in Paris may have attracted the attention of sports fans around the world, locally, one Paddock teenager has achieved something that could be the equal of a gold medal.
Olivia King, only 16 years old, was named the women’s player of the tournament at the recent Polocrosse World Cup held at Shongweni near Hillcrest recently.
She’s the daughter of Seb and Mel King.
South Africa won the tournament, presented by the Ignition Group, and Olivia did more than just make up the numbers.
For a start, she gave everyone a huge fright during one of the earlier games against Ireland, tumbling off her horse and then having the horse roll on and over her.
“It was a bit stressful,” said her mom Mel, possibly understating the scariness of the situation.
But Olivia bounced right up, got back on the horse and continued playing.
The final was played against Australia, and SA – for a change in sport against the Aussies – came out on the right side of a close encounter, winning 29-28.
This is now the third time SA has won the World Cup.
Spectators were kept on the edge of their seats during what turned out to be one of the closest finals in polocrosse history.
SA came out of the first chukka five goals down, with the men coming in to close that gap, building the momentum from there.
Chukka four to seven, it was one goal in, and in chukka eight, Australia went up by two, followed by two goals from SA to equalise.
This was followed by the winning goal in the final seconds before the bell rang.
Man of the match was Chad von Beneke.
(in front).
The team manager was Jean Hackland (Pietermaritzburg), women’s coach Henry Harris (Pretoria) and men’s coach James Hackland (Pietermaritzburg).
The men’s team comprised captain Jan-Albert Steenkamp (Wellington), Stef Harris (Pretoria), Chad von Benecke (Eston) and Joshua le Roux (Lidgetton).
The women’s team comprised captain Jacquie Minnaar (Greytown), Lauren Heynes (Pietermaritzburg), Amy Cocker (Cato Ridge) and Olivia King (Paddock).
In the last few years, Olivia has achieved much in the sport, featuring in the winning team at SA Champs.
She was also best female U16 player in a tournament in Australia last year.
This year, she won most valuable female player in a series against Western Australia, which they won.
But the World Cup success tops all this.
She said she would not have been able to do all this without the support of everyone who stood by her on the journey to and during the World Cup.
“The crowd was unbelievable, and I couldn’t be more grateful. I want to say a special thank you to friends and family who came to support me, in particular the Paddock community. I can’t believe how many made the journey to come through to cheer me on,” she said.
Rankings
1 South Africa
2 Australia
3 Zambia
4 New Zealand
5 Ireland
6 Zimbabwe
7 United Kingdom
8 USA
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