{"id":4519,"date":"2025-04-26T16:28:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T14:28:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/?p=4519"},"modified":"2025-04-26T16:28:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T14:28:48","slug":"junior-africa-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/26\/junior-africa-cup-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior Africa Cup \u2013 Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa Crowned Champions of Africa Once Again<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa completed a golden campaign at the Junior Africa Cup in Windhoek, as both the U21 Men and Women defeated hosts Namibia to be crowned the Junior African Champions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having already secured qualification to the FIH Junior World Cup, South Africa\u2019s final victories added the ultimate finishing touch to a superb tournament \u2014 with the Men and Women affirming their status as Africa\u2019s finest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Final: South Africa 5\u20130 Namibia<\/span><\/strong>
\n<\/span>In the women\u2019s final, South Africa faced a determined Namibian side that proved difficult to break down early on. However, once captain <\/span>Caylin<\/span> Maree opened the scoring in the 21st minute, South Africa took control of the match.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ntsopa Mokoena continued her outstanding tournament with a brace, Maree added her second, and Jodie Blows put the finishing touches on a composed 5\u20130 victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

This triumph marks South Africa\u2019s eighth consecutive Junior Africa Cup title, having won every edition since 1997.<\/span><\/p>\n

Men\u2019s Final: South Africa 5\u20130 Namibia<\/span><\/strong>
\n<\/span>The South African U21 Men were clinical in the final, producing a powerful display against Namibia to claim back-to-back Junior Africa Cup titles and a sixth title in the past seven editions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reuben <\/span>Sendzul<\/span> opened the scoring early, before tournament top scorer Jaydon Brooker netted twice to give South Africa a 3\u20130 lead at half-time. Ross Montgomery extended the advantage in the second half, with <\/span>Viwe<\/span> Mbata<\/span> completing the 5\u20130 win late on.<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s U21 Men end the tournament unbeaten, scoring 41 goals and conceding just 5.<\/span><\/p>\n

Africa\u2019s World Cup Qualifiers Confirmed:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>Men: South Africa, Namibia, Egypt<\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 <\/span>Women: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe<\/span><\/div>\n

Individual Awards \u2013 South African Winners:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>Dan Dillion: Goalkeeper of the Tournament (Men)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 <\/span>Caylin<\/span> Maree: Top Goal Scorer (Women)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 <\/span>Jaydon Brooker: Top Goal Scorer (Men)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 <\/span>Ntsopa Mokoena: Player of the Tournament (Women)<\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 <\/span>Jaydon Brooker: Player of the Tournament (Men)<\/span><\/div>\n

South Africa will now prepare for the FIH Junior World Cup, where they will proudly represent Africa \u2014 arriving not just as participants, but as continental champions.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa Crowned Champions of Africa Once Again South Africa completed a golden campaign at the Junior Africa Cup in Windhoek, as both the U21 Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4519","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\/4519","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=4519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4521,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4519\/revisions\/4521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}