SA’s Jane Claxton helps Australia’s Hockeyroos stands tall to qualify for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
Australia’s women’s hockey team has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics but a couple of South Aussies wait anxiously to see if they will be on the team’s plane next year.
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Champion South Australian hockey player Jane Claxton is used to living on the edge when it comes to performing for South Australia and Australia in big hockey matches.
But even for the seasoned Claxton there were plenty of nerves in the lead up to Australia’s final Olympic qualifier against Russia.
Pipped for direct qualification against New Zealand before that the Hockeyroos – ranked second in the world – were forced into a final two-game qualifier against the No.19 seed where the side with the highest goal aggregate went through to Tokyo.
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The Hockeyroos won the first match 4-2 but exploded in the second to the take the match 5-0 to give it a 9-2 overall scoreline and a booking for Tokyo – their 11th successive appearance at an Olympic Games.
Claxton, who turned 27 on the day of the final game, said the players felt the pressure with so much to play for.
“Post the second game I think it was more relief than anything,’’ Claxton said.
“We had a solid six weeks block building up to these games so there was a lot of time to think about the outcome and study the Russians.
“By the time the games ended it felt like I could finally take a breath and relax as the job had been done.”
Hockeyroos head coach Paul Gaudoin said he and the teams were relieved to qualify.
“They worked really hard and it has been a massive year,’’ Gaudoin said.
“We didn’t quite get there (against New Zealand) in Rockhampton but now we can focus our preparations on Tokyo.
“From here we’ve got to make sure we’re as prepared as we can be leading up to the Olympics.
“It was pleasing that we managed to finish off with some quality goals in the first half but our ball handling needs to get better as well as our fitness.”
Claxton, who is based in Perth at Hockey Australia’s High Performance program, plays for Burnside Hockey Club and the newly formed Adelaide Fire in the Hockey One competition when time allows.
Her career already is much respected with an appearance at the Rio Olympics (2016) where the Hockeyroos made the quarterfinals and as a member of the gold medal team which competed at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 in Scotland.
While Claxton and another South Aussie Karri McMahon, who is from the Riverland, look to be strong chances to head to Tokyo, the final squad won’t be announced until the end of November.
The Pro-league begins again after Christmas with home games played first and then a series of away games in March.
For now Claxton is focused on doing well for the Fire.