{"id":5494,"date":"2026-05-09T23:47:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T21:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/?p=5494"},"modified":"2026-05-09T23:47:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T21:47:47","slug":"sa-hockey-ipt-southern-gauteng-and-western-province-crowned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/09\/sa-hockey-ipt-southern-gauteng-and-western-province-crowned\/","title":{"rendered":"SA Hockey IPT | Southern Gauteng and Western Province Crowned"},"content":{"rendered":"

SA Hockey IPT 2026 | Southern Gauteng and Western Province Crowned Champions of South Africa<\/span><\/p>\n

The South African Hockey IPT reached its conclusion at the University of Johannesburg on a cold Saturday night, with two outstanding finals bringing the curtain down on a week of elite provincial hockey.<\/span><\/p>\n

photo credit: Marcel Sigg<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s final, it was a thrilling Gauteng derby as Southern Gauteng and <\/span>Northerns<\/span> Blues battled for national supremacy in a tense and fiercely contested encounter. Clear opportunities were few and far between in the opening half, although Southern Gauteng came closest when a dangerous deflection crashed against the crossbar and away.<\/span><\/p>\n

The game was desperate for a moment of brilliance and Bianca Wood delivered exactly that. The Southern Gauteng star produced a sensational finish, lifting the ball emphatically into the roof of the net to ignite the packed crowd at UJ.<\/span><\/p>\n

Northerns<\/span> Blues threw everything forward in search of an equaliser and came agonisingly close when Ntsopa Mokoena missed a golden chance to level matters. Southern Gauteng punished the miss moments later. Hayley <\/span>Kilfoil<\/span> reacted quickest to a looping ball inside the circle and hammered home to seal a famous victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

The result confirmed Southern Gauteng as champions of South Africa for the first time since 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n

Western Province claimed the bronze medal after edging North West in a shootout following a goalless draw. WP Peninsula secured fifth place with a 3-0 victory over KZN Raiders, while Free State finished seventh after defeating Eastern Province 1-0.<\/span><\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Individual Awards<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>Top Goal Scorer \u2013 Bianca Wood (Southern Gauteng) <\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 <\/span>Best Goalkeeper \u2013 Marlise van Tonder (Western Province) <\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 <\/span>Best Young Player \u2013 Baylee <\/span>Engelke<\/span> (<\/span>Northerns<\/span> Blues) <\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 <\/span>Player of the Tournament \u2013 Paris-Gail Isaacs (Southern Gauteng) <\/span><\/div>\n

The <\/span>mens<\/span> final will live long in the memory as one of the great games of hockey in South African Hockey history. <\/span><\/p>\n

Western Province struck first through Kenton Melville in the opening quarter, but Southern Gauteng responded before the end of the period when Sihle Ngubane produced a brilliant finish to restore parity. The two sides remained locked at 1-1 heading into halftime.<\/span><\/p>\n

Western Province regained the advantage in the second half after a slick attacking move saw the ball cut back to an unmarked Thabang <\/span>Jeyi<\/span>, who calmly fired home to silence the UJ crowd.<\/span> Reuben <\/span>Sendzul<\/span> produced one of the goals of the tournament with a brilliant reverse stick strike to make it 3-1.\u00a0<\/span>Southerns<\/span> pulled a goal back late on through Liam Hermanus to set up a grandstand finish.<\/span> And a grandstand finish is what we got. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cameron le Forestier levelled with just 170 seconds left in the game but Niel <\/span>Raath<\/span> re-established the lead for Western Province with a brilliant penalty corner flick that looked to seal the title. Sihle Ngubane won a penalty corner for Southern Gauteng and Hermanus fired a leveller in the final seconds. <\/span><\/p>\n

The game would go to a shootout, which would extend for two sudden death rounds but the defending champions would finally find the killer punch and retain the title in dramatic fashion<\/span><\/p>\n

The bronze medal was secured by North West, inspired by Jethro Eustice in a dramatic 3-2 victory over KZN Raiders to earn their first medal in five years. <\/span>Northerns<\/span> Blues finished fifth after defeating Free State 4-2, while SG <\/span>Witsies<\/span> claimed seventh place in a thrilling 4-3 win over Eastern Province.<\/span><\/p>\n

Men\u2019s Individual Awards<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/span>Top Goal Scorer \u2013 Niel <\/span>Raath<\/span> (Western Province) <\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 <\/span>Best Goalkeeper \u2013 <\/span>Cullin<\/span> de Jager (Southern Gauteng) <\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 <\/span>Best Young Player \u2013 <\/span>Ozair<\/span> Pillai (Western Province) <\/span><\/div>\n
\u2022 <\/span>Player of the Tournament \u2013 Niel <\/span>Raath<\/span> (Western Province)<\/span><\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SA Hockey IPT 2026 | Southern Gauteng and Western Province Crowned Champions of South Africa The South African Hockey IPT reached its conclusion at the Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5494","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\/5494","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=5494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5496,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5494\/revisions\/5496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runridedive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}