Five Wairarapa players have been included in a 30-strong New Zealand under-18 women's hockey squad.
Megan Hull, Katherine van Woerkom, Morgan Percy, Felicity Reid and Jenna Anderson will take part in training camps and undergo a strength and conditioning programme aimed at enhancing their prospects of representing their country at testmatch level.
Their selection follows the superb effort by Wairarapa at the national under-18 women's tourney in Wellington last week when they placed third, their only "loss" coming when they went down 4-3 in a penalty stroke shootout to North Harbour in a semi-final that was tied up 1-1 after ordinary time.
North Harbour went on to beat Auckland 2-0 in the final, a somewhat frustrating result for Wairarapa as they had earlier defeated Auckland 5-2 in pool play.
An ex-Wairarapa player in Nick Finlayson, these days based in Wellington, has been included in the New Zealand under-18 men's squad, which also consists of 30 players. Meanwhile, the Wairarapa under-15 boys team is through to the quarter-finals of their national tournament in Timaru. They qualified top in their pool after three wins and a draw.
The wins came over Nelson (2-1), Southland (6-0) and Hawke's Bay (9-4) and they lost a cliff-hanger to Wellington (1-2). Joseph Robertson had scored nine goals - five of them against Hawke's Bay - while Dylan Price had six.
The Wairarapa under-15 girls team had a 3-3 draw with Tauranga at their national tourney in Invercargill yesterday after having had a win and loss in their previous two matches. Petra Hall (2) and Hannah Lang scored the Wairarapa goals.
