Women's Junior World Cup: Get to Know North-West University

POTCHEFSTROOM, South Africa - Before the U.S. U-21 Women's National Team take the pitch for their first game at the FIH Hockey Women's World Cup in Potchefstroom, South Africa, let’s get to know the hosting venue, North-West University.

Potchefstroom, situated approximately 175 miles west-southwest of Johannesburg, is an academic city that also features excellent sports facilities that attract more than 2,000 international athletes yearly with many of them appreciating the friendliness and hospitality of the city’s residents. Potchefstroom hosted 14 FIH Hockey Pro League matches in February this year. In the past, it hosted two World Cup winning teams (in cricket and football), and was also the venue for some Cricket World Cup and Cricket World Cup Qualifier matches. Noted local athletes include Godfrey Khotso Mokoena, silver medalist in the long jump at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Apart from its sporting features though, Potchefstroom has a rich history and houses several memorial sites and tourist attractions, with other tourist attractions and world heritage sites within the near vicinity of the city. This includes beautiful places and interesting spots such as the Snowflake Silo building, O. P. M. Prozesky Bird Sanctuary, MooiRivier Mall or Boskop Dam Nature Reserve among the many more things to discover.

The NWU Hockey Academy boasts to be one of the best hockey facilities in South Africa, with an array of excellent services and expertise. It features two side-by-side water based synthetic turfs which have been re-laid in 2019 with blue Greenfield TX Elite synthetic carpets that have FIH certification – both pitches are also floodlit. Many successful hockey teams such as Germany, Spain, Belgium and France have already used NWU Hockey Academy’s facilities for their training camps and matches; and it has also played host to FIH Hockey Pro League matches as well as a 5 Nations International Tournament. With excellent facilities in place and further upgrades being made prior to the event, teams and athletes will profit also from the close proximity, providing training, matches, services and accommodation all within an 800m x 800m location.

All matches at the FIH Hockey Women's World Cup will be live streamed on Watch.Hockey.