Samantha Charlton Leads Kiwi Hockey charge at London 2012-

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The New Zealand women’s hockey team, the Black Sticks were the surprise package of these Olympic Games finishing ahead of Australia and the United States. Coming into these Olympics they were ranked seventh they battled all the way to get to the bronze medal play off against Great Britain. Despite a 3-1 loss they were one of the stand out performances of London and showed great fighting spirit finishing fourth overall. 

One of the youngest players of this champion team is Samantha Charlton. Samantha is a 20 year old defensive and midfield player who is very quick around the field. Her motto is “train hard, there are no shortcuts to a place worth going.” This attitude has led her all the way to London. Samantha describes the Olympics as “an amazing experience... everyone there has been dedicating four years to training to get there and it is an incredible environment to be in.” 

She says to “reach what could be the pinnacle of sport at 20 was unbelievable, and to represent New Zealand was something really special.” 

But Samantha wanted to compete not just participate. Finishing fourth has been a massive achievement for the team although she feels, as a team, “we are all still devastated where we finished.” The Black Sticks were held to a 2-2 draw with Holland and lost on penalties to play for bronze where they succumbed to Great Britain. 

Their head coach is Australian Mark Hager and Charlton jokingly says “its not as bad you think” having to work with an Australian. Samantha says the entire team are quite astonished where he has bought the team in just four years. She says he’s not only a good technical coach but the players “really benefit from his one- on- one skill coaching.” 

To get to the finals New Zealand had to draw with powerhouse Germany. The Black Sticks managed to keep them to a 0-0 draw. Samantha says that “this was a difficult game. Germany had to beat us by 4 or more goals to give themselves a Semi- Final chance, so whilst we didn’t need to score goals, it was important that we didn’t let any in!” 

Despite Germany “throwing everything” at the team the New Zealand side managed to hang on and go through to play the Dutch. She credits this success to “a combination of self belief and good gritty team performances.” 

Early on in the tournament the Black sticks had to play Australia whom they ended up beating 1-0. Samantha says “this was very pleasing (as) we knew this would be a make or break game so to come away from this game with a win, (that) was very important.” She feels the rivalry is alive and well between the two great sporting nations. 

When she got home Samantha was inspired by being at the Olympics and as she is only 20 has set her sights on Brazil. She describes it as being a “realistic, but tough goal. However in her eyes “it won’t be easy...But yes I would most definitely want to go to Brazil, and especially try and better our London placing.” 

With this attitude it’s no surprise the team and Samantha have done so well at these Olympics. 

By Peter McAlpine

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• Field Hockey
• Olympics

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