Smith wary of Belarus threat

As one Irish World League campaign ends, another begins this morning with Darren Smith’s women hoping to follow the men in qualifying for round three. They are in Valencia for a five-team tournament, going toe-to-toe with the Czech Republic tomorrow morning with Belarus next up, enjoying a three-day rest before the two tougher ties against hosts and favourites Spain and then Italy, who scuppered their Olympic qualification dream in Canada back in 2008. Smith is tipping the Belorussians as dark horses for the competition, following an eye-catching showing in the competition’s first round. “I’m looking forward to the start of the tournament and seeing the girls in action against some good teams,” he said. “Belarus have been promoted to A division of the European Championship and won World League 1 in Prague late last year, finishing ahead of Scotland and Italy. They will be very competitive and a tough team to break down.

“Spain and Italy play with that skill and freedom that can cause any team problems if they are not prepared and aware.” Meanwhile, Ireland coach Andrew Meredith was relieved to see his side escape from New Delhi with qualification for round three of the World League in the bag yesterday. Having seen off minnows Oman 7-2 on Saturday, Ireland produced their best performance of the tournament to see off China 4-0 in their crunch game yesterday, with Shane O’Donoghue augmenting Peter Brown’s opener with a hat-trick of drag-flicks. A tough build-up with absent players and frozen off training sessions were far from ideal preparation but Ireland came close to claiming the tournament outright. “Just one goal separated us from the side that finished first; who knows what might have happened if we were more effective from our corners?” Meredith said. “But it’s remarkable in the context that we probably only had six days preparations for this competition against teams that are training full-time together. It’s a huge disadvantage, as is coming from the European winter. To produce what we did and to finish like that is something I am really proud of from the guys.” Finishing in the top two means Ireland qualify for round three of the World League where 12 of the 16 entrants will qualify for the 2014 World Cup. The 16 are divided into two tournaments, with eight heading to the Netherlands and the other eight going to Malaysia. Ireland must wait for the completion of the other round two ties to see which tournament they will be entered into. There were also some individual awards for the Irish players; David Harte was named goalkeeper of the tournament and Alan Sothern its’ best forward. Pembroke man Sothern also took the top goalscorer award, ties on eight with India’s drag-flicking behemoth VR Raghunath. For full written, audio and visual coverage of Ireland’s men’s games from the world league, see the excellent coverage on The Hook from Stephen Findlater who was in New Delhi for the tournament.