Qld hockey gold medallists gain national selection honours

HOCKEY: Fraser Coast Hockey juniors Diarmid Chappell, Harry Douma and Ryan Wilcox snared gold and Australian representative honours at the under-16 Schoolboys national championships.

The trio went to Newcastle August 3-10 and Diarmid gained an Australian call-up while Harry and Ryan got Australian shadow selection.

Diarmid was both excited and thrilled to be selected for Australian schoolboys.

"I had put in a lot of hard work and training leading up to the championship,” he said.

The determined success of the Queensland schoolboys team was showcased when they beat Victoria 4-2 in the final despite coming second to them on the points ladder.

First game was a 3-all draw against New South Wales State followed by a strong win over Western Australia, 2-1.

The Queensland players got a winning roll on defeating New South Wales Blue 3-1, ACT 2-1, a thumping 5-1 win over South Australia and 3-1 against Tasmania.

Victoria however gave Queensland a reality check beating them 4-nil in the final round.

Queensland came back with a vengeance in the final defeating Victoria 4-2 and Diarmid played a part of the game scoring one of the goals.

"We (Qld) were up 2-1 and it was a tight contest and when I scored the third goal it gave us a bit of breathing space and put the pressure back onto Victoria,” Diarmid said.

For Harry, the chance to win the gold medal and Australian shadow selection was a great learning curve experience for him.

"To win and come first was good and to play in such a hard competition was great experience,” he said.

The three players will be making preparations for the Fraser Coast League semi-finals to be played tomorrow.