Day 3 of the Belgotex Sport Fairmont Hockey Tournament

Belgotex Sport Fairmont Hockey Festival gives us our finalists

The Belgotex Sport Fairmont Easter Tournament unites 48 teams over 4 days in a show of competitive sportsmanship that attracts even naysayers to the sport. It's an advert for the sport, for school hockey and for everything that is right about the synthetic fabric of South African School Sport.

The impact of the corona virus pandemic has been immense and school sport has been impacted dramatically. Festivals and fixtures around the country have been postponed, cancelled, moved and ultimately lost to annals of history. But as the world has slowly started to emerge from the carnage of the past and the Fairmont Hockey Tournament has been a shining beacon of this so far. The action over the past three days has given us an excitement that although the world changed, the quality of the young South African sportsmen and women has not. Almost impressively is that with the frustration of the absence of sport, the young men and women have returned with a spirit than embodies “Proudly South African”.

On Day three of the action the teams delivered once again to the action-thirsty spectators at home on the ES Media and SuperSport Schools App. In the girl’s tournament all eyes were on the Springfield and Somerset College match as the former still had an outside opportunity to make the final. They would need to shock the favourites.

But there was nothing shocking about the result as Somerset continued the unrelented march to the title. Hanna van Heerden, Kristen Germishuys, Tessa Wittles and Lauren Venter showed the almost unmatchable goal scoring abilities of college in a fantastic display of leading hockey. The victory cemented their 100% record in the group stage and secured them the role as the favourite in Saturday’s final. 22 Goals scored, just 2 conceded.

They will play the hosts Fairmont in the final as the two most explosive and dynamic attacking forces will meet to decide the winners of the Belgotex Sport Fairmont Hockey Tournament.

In the boy’s tournament all eyes were on the cracker between Fairmont and York as the visitors had kept their hopes of a space in the tournament final with a great play on day 2. Their challenge was hard on paper, but almost impossible when they fell 2 goals behind to Michael Hamman and the Mastery of Kyle Masters. To their credit York fought back superbly and pulled one goal back, but ultimately there was no fairy-tale finish.

The Fairmont boys have been on point from minute 1 on day 1 and they have one step left to put their hands on the trophy and lift the title. The team will be looking to do whatever they can to deny them that opportunity is Somerset College.

There is the added sub-plot for day tomorrow. Mark Pickering will oversee his final match for Somerset College as the head coach as he moves on to a new challenge in his life. That could be a powerful motivation, but with many players also reaching the end of their schooling hockey careers tomorrow there is no doubt that motivation will not be in short supply.

The Belgotex Sport Fairmont Hockey Tournament has been a rousing success and has offered a tantalising teaser for the full tournament to return in Easter next year. With the innovation, the excitement and the energy making it a must watch tournament for parents, families, friends and fans. Thank you once again to Belgotex Sport and Livingstone Baths for being part of the journey and making the tournament a reality.

The final day can be followed on the Sportivo app, on the SuperSport School App or on the ES Media YouTube page. Who will take home the glory on a day when hockey undoubtedly will be the winner?