Retirement made me more mature, says South Africa’s Pietie Coetzee

Ritu Sejwal, TNN

NEW DELHI: South Africa’s Pietie Coetzee had bid adieu to hockey in 2005 after the Champions Challenge to concentrate on her studies and professional career. But the 33-year-old returned after five years, got back to her goal-scoring ways and last year set the world record for most number of goals.

“Hockey is not a professional sport in South Africa and somewhere down the line I lost the motivation and energy to play,” Pietie said. “In 2010, the coach asked me if I would like to consider getting back. And I just got back to playing. At first I had to lose a lot of weight to get fitter, and had to do a lot of running. The body feels great now,” Coetzee said.

“I am proud of it (world record) but I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it,” she smiled.

In her time away from the hockey field, Pietie went on to study sports medicine at Rand Afrikaans University. “All that has made me a more mature person,” she added.

Pietie is the most experienced hand in the top-ranked team at the Olympic qualifiers, she represented South Africa in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. On the qualifiers, Pietie said: “We are surprised at the weather, its milder than we thought. As for the tournament, international hockey is strange, anything can happen. We just want to make fewer mistakes,” she said.

Pietie said the decision by the South African association, which wanted both the men’s and women’s teams – which are African champions — to prove themselves at the qualifiers, was frustrating. “Initially it was very frustrating, but we have dealt with it,” she added.

The jet-lagged girls arrived in the early hours of Thursday morning.