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South Africa

Natalie Fulton, Chelmsford Hockey Centre’s newly appointed Director of Coaching has been awarded the prestigious 2004 Sports Woman of the Year Award by the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

The 27 year old South African had made the 5,000 mile trip back to the UK to start her new role at Chelmsford Hockey Centre following a punishing Summer at the Olympics when she got a call from the university to notify her of the award. In a moment of “déjà vu”, Fulton flew back to South Africa, courtesy of the university to collect her award from the South African Deputy Minister of Sport. The gala evening reunited many of the South African Olympians who had competed in Athens.

Natalie has had an outstanding year in South African hockey. She won a gold medal in the Pre-Olympian Four Nations Event in Athens and she qualified for the Olympic Team which finished ninth in Athens, improving on their tenth position in Sydney.

Elswhere, in her day to day job as Hockey Manager for the University of Pretoria over the past year Natalie has overseen close on 1,000 players of all ages ensuring quality coaching of modern techniques to maximise each person’s individual skills and goals within the game.

She was taken by surprise with the call from Pretoria but was delighted with the award and commented: “The award was a total surprise and I,m extremely proud to have even been considered for it let alone win it. It is a great honour”.

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