South Africa Girls thrash Ghana 5-1

Ghana's female under-21 hockey team, the Junior Black Sticks, played their best game at the ongoing African Hockey Youth Championship but lost 1-5 to free-scoring South Africa in their third game today at the Cairo International Stadium in Egypt.

The score line withstanding, the Ghanaians remain the only team to have scored a goal against the defending champions after scoring five unanswered goal against host, Egypt, last Friday and nine against neighbours Zimbabwe yesterday. The Ghanaian ladies now need to win their last two matches against Kenya and Zimbabwe respectively to boost their chances of picking one of two African tickets for next year's Junior World Cup to be co-hosted by Malaysia and Singapore.

The Black Sticks who had earlier drawn 0-0 against their neighbours Nigeria and lost 0-1 to Egypt defended well with occasional breaks one of which resulted in their goal.

The South Africans were up by two goals at half time from the stick of Turner Roxanne who added a personal third in the second half before Abigail Adalatey pulled one back from an excellent finish.

However, that could not stop the South Africans from adding two more in the dying minutes from the sticks of Nicole Kemp and Loreen Irvine. Earlier in the day, Egypt failed to hold unto a slender lone goal as Kenyan ladies fought back to pull even while Nigeria got their first win against Zimbabwe by a lone goal.

In the men's matches, Ghana put up a spirited performance only to lose 2-3 to South Africa. The favorites will be the first to admit that the Ghanaians gave them a run for their money as they matched them in all departments of the game. The performance of the Ghanaians is a clear indication of the narrowing of the gap between the super powers and the other nations. Egypt run over Libya 21-0 while Kenya whitewashed Sudan 22-0.