Around the continents - Oceania 
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| Planet Field Hockey |
February 4, 2001
FIH
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Australia proud
A very successful year for member countries of the OHF. Hosting the 2000 Olympic Games was a rare opportunity for Australia to showcase their country. They were tremendously proud of the way in which the whole event was staged.
It was felt that the Olympic hockey tournament was fabulous, full of excitement, largely unpredictable, and conducted professionally and efficiently. It was particularly thrilling for Australia to have both their teams win medals in front of a home crowd - the Telstra Hockeyroos winning their second successive Olympic gold impressively. The New Zealand's women's team headed their Olympic pool and finished in sixth place.
New Coaches
Australia appointed new national coaches in November. Barry Dancer, formerly with Great Britain and England, takes over from as men's coach from Terry Walsh and David "Dibsy" Bell, a dual-Olympian who has been Australian Institute of Sport senior men's coach for the last three years, replaces Ric Charlesworth, with the women.
Charlesworth retires after eight years at the helm of Australia's most successful team ever, with a record of 253 matches, 198 wins and 25 losses and a hatful of major titles.
Hockey Australia
Women's Hockey Australia and the men's body, the Australian HA, agreed to amalgamate in November. The joint body, to be known as Hockey Australia, will officially open its doors on January 1, 2001. Pam Tye is the first President.
After a hectic time during 2000, preparations are well under way for many events early in the New Year. The Sydney Olympic Youth Festival, an international multi-sport event for under 18's, will take place in January, initiating the Year of the Youth in Australia.
New Zealand sponsors
The unprecedented public interest in the New Zealand women's team, has resulted in a significant sponsorship from Telecom and the birth of the "Telecom 2go Black Sticks". The team is to be coached for another two years, up to the World Cup, by Jan Borren.
The NZ women will play a number of internationals at home prior to Champions Trophy in the Netherlands. Their opponents will be Korea (four tests in March), India (in May) and Australia (three tests).
Kevin Towns, coach of the NZ men's team, is preparing his side for three tests against Australia which are to being held to celebrate the renovation of the Melbourne stadium in May.
New Zealand's Junior men recently won the Oceania qualifying series against Australia, winning the first two matches 6-1 and 3-2, before narrowly losing the third 2-1.
Tennis court training
Papua New Guinea HF, under the guidance of Oceania vice-president Keith Long, adopted a new constitution and has a new executive. It is pledged to fully support the YotY programme as that fits their intended focus on youth development. During school semester breaks, YotY training camps will be conducted in Port Moresby and Lae.
Papua & NG have set themselves the target of winning the Pacific Island tournament in Fiji later in the year. They have secured a number of sponsors.
Their national training squad is preparing on tennis courts in Port Moresby and the players have been asked for a full commitment to the exclusion of other sports.
In April, Papua will conduct a nine-day training and development camp in Australia which is to be hosted by the Cairns HA.
Fiji's problems
Political events have affected Fiji's ability to participate in team and administrative events in Australia and New Zealand, their traditional partners. They hope these bans are relaxed so that they can take advantage of planned workshops and training activities.
The 2000 season finished successfully with all major national inter-district and club tournaments played despite the political situation and the constraints this placed on venues and travel through-out the country. Their only major disappointment was that not all the national schools tournaments went ahead.
Fiji's synthetic turf facility, having been stalled for a year, is said to be progressing well and is on target for June 2001.
King's Patronage
Women's hockey is being established in Tonga, under the guidance of their NOC and with the patronage of the King of Tonga. Derek Wilshere held a Coaching Clinic. Hockey is also re-born in Samoa.
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