Ahead of the 15th edition of the FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup taking place in Spain and the Netherlands (1-17 July), we’re conducting a series of exclusive interviews with the participating teams. Today: Jane Claxton (AUS).
With two Gold medals, three Silver medals and one Bronze medal, Australia has a really impressive FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup record! How do you look at that?
Jane Claxton: We have a great legacy before us. I think that was called the “golden era”, when a lot of those medals were won. I was fortunate enough to be part of the silver winning team, two World Cups ago. It's an incredible legacy to do live up to but also live in front of.
In the last edition in 2018 in England, you narrowly missed the podium, losing to Spain in the Bronze medal match (after losing only on penalty shootouts against the Netherlands). Does this give an extra motivation to the Hockeyroos to go back onto the podium this year?
Definitely! It's a completely different team since that World Cup. A lot of fresh faces, a lot of girls wanting to make their mark on international hockey but also a lot of girls that have been around for quite some time now wanting to get that gold medal that's escaped us for the last few World Cups. So, there's a lot of fire in our bellies. Adding to that, we haven't had many international matches since the Tokyo Olympics, so we're just thrilled to be able to be traveling again and participating on the international stage.
At the Tokyo Olympics precisely, you lost to India in the quarter-finals. Have you digested this defeat and here again is this giving you an extra energy to win?
Yes, most definitely. I think anyone that loses in the format of a quarter-final, when you've had such great performances preceding that throughout the Pool games, is a big blow. Especially at something like the Olympics, where you wait four years - and then this time five years - to perform in front of the world. Not only hockey fans but fans of all types of sports get to watch you. So, we've definitely taken a few months post Tokyo to digest all of that. We've been working really heavily with the cultural side of things for our team to get past those roadblocks of quarterfinals so that when we get to the world stage and we get to those high-pressure moments, we're ready to perform.
Because of COVID related travel restrictions, unfortunately Australia was not able to participate in the current edition of the FIH Hockey Pro League, therefore missing a little bit the opportunity to play on a regular basis against top teams from different playing cultures. How do you see this?
Australia has probably isolated themselves for the last two years and finally we're joining back to the world, which is incredibly exciting for Australian hockey. For Australian fans to see us play on the international stage is incredibly exciting. I think all of the girls are also in that boat. We want to get out there. We want to perform. So many girls have developed so much over the last two years and so it's so exciting to hopefully see them step out onto the world stage, see the world see them for the first time and see what we can do.
Since we haven't seen the Hockeyroos much on the international scene in the last couple of months, can you tell us a little bit how your team is doing at the moment?
We've just come back together after our Christmas period off. We've been doing a lot of fitness testing which I know across the hockey scene everyone dreads but is a key part in, I guess, assessing where everyone’s at. After our four-game series against New Zealand, we'll have a five-week camp in Perth where we'll prepare to head over to Europe for the World Cup. And then obviously the tournaments beyond the World Cup.
You’re in a Pool with Belgium, Japan and South Africa. How do you look at each of these teams?
Each team poses its own challenges. I don't think one of those teams are easy beats by any means. Belgium, for example. We watched a lot of their Pro League games and they're really impressive. They're a team on the rise and I don't see them stopping anytime soon. They are a formidable force and you can't underestimate them. Japan, due to their, I guess, Tokyo performance, they're probably raring to get out there and prove themselves on the international stage again. South Africa are also an unpredictable force to deal with. We played them in the lead up to the Olympic Games and it was a heated match. That's the type of hockey we like to play. So, our pool is unpredictable but a lot of those teams are challenging teams. There's no sure win in our pool, which is really exciting for us. We have to go into each game being ready for a fight and being ready to put our best foot forward.
Any message you would like to give to your fans?
It’s just going to be incredibly exciting to see everyone again to hopefully tune in watch us at the World Cup. We've been away from the international scene for a while now and hopefully you're impressed with what we bring to the field as well as to the atmosphere of the World Cup.
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