{"id":4494,"date":"2025-04-22T07:26:52","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T05:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/?p=4494"},"modified":"2025-04-22T07:26:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T05:26:52","slug":"junior-africa-cup-day-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/22\/junior-africa-cup-day-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior Africa Cup \u2013 Day 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>South Africa one step closer to Junior World Cup qualification<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>South Africa continued their commanding run at the Junior Africa Cup in Windhoek, with both the Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s teams securing important victories to remain unbeaten and firmly on course for World Cup qualification.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Men: South Africa 7\u20131 Zimbabwe<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>South Africa\u2019s U21 Men delivered another clinical display, beating Zimbabwe 7\u20131 to register a third consecutive victory and edge closer to a spot at the FIH Junior World Cup in India.<br \/>\nFrom the opening minute, Jayden Brooker \u2013 who has been in electric form \u2013 opened the scoring. Zimbabwe proved more resilient than previous opponents, but Brooker was undeterred, completing a first-half hat-trick to take his tournament tally to eight goals.<br \/>\nIn the second half, Brooker added two more, before Thabang Jeyi and Litha Kraai joined the scoresheet. Zimbabwe pulled one back late through Matipa Mawere, but the result was never in doubt.<br \/>\nSouth Africa now sit on 9 points from 3 matches, having scored 27 goals and conceded just 4. A win against Egypt on Tuesday morning will mathematically confirm qualification to the Junior World Cup.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Women: South Africa 4\u20130 Kenya<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The South African U21 Women were tested for the first time in the tournament but came through with poise and purpose, defeating Kenya 4\u20130 to maintain their perfect start.<br \/>\nParis-Gail Isaacs, a senior Olympian, gave South Africa the ideal start with a goal in the second minute. Paige Salis added a second just before the end of the first quarter. Kenya battled bravely and kept the South Africans at bay for two quarters, but in the final period, South Africa broke through again. Captain Caylin Maree made it 3\u20130, and Germarie Speershott sealed the result.<br \/>\nSouth Africa remain unbeaten, unbreached, and unrelenting \u2013 27 goals scored, none conceded \u2013 and are in prime position heading into Tuesday\u2019s clash against third-placed Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday Fixtures \u2013 Qualification on the Line:<br \/>\n\u2022 09:00 \u2013 Women: South Africa vs Zimbabwe<br \/>\n\u2022 11:00 \u2013 Men: South Africa vs Egypt<br \/>\nVictories for both sides would guarantee South Africa\u2019s ticket to the FIH Junior World Cup \u2014 the women to Chile, and the men to India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa one step closer to Junior World Cup qualification South Africa continued their commanding run at the Junior Africa Cup in Windhoek, with both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/22\/junior-africa-cup-day-3\/\" class=\"btn btn-link continue-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hockey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4496,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4494\/revisions\/4496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}