Michelle Low makes world cup hockey team for New Zealand

Michelle Low is representing New Zealand in the Masters 55 Hockey Team with mixed age groups.

Whanganui hockey player Michelle Low is on Cloud Nine as she has been selected to represent New Zealand in the world cup in Auckland for the New Zealand Masters 55 Hockey Team.

A biennial event, it is the first time to Low’s knowledge that the world cup has been played in New Zealand. Owing to Covid, this will be the first world cup since 2018. Low is the only player selected from the Whanganui area.

Some of the age groups have been to South Africa, as the Hockey World Cup is too big to hold at one venue. There are 114 teams from all over the world, Low’s pool has South Africa, Chile, Australia IMC and Scotland.

There will be six to seven games to play from November 7 to 17.

Low has been playing since the age of 11 and has represented most of the age groups. Her highlight was winning her first world cup in England, being able to still play at a good level, and making so many cool friends.

She has been in four world cups, throughout her age group. The last world cup she attended was in 2018 in Barcelona.

Her main position is as a defensive player. A member of Whanganui’s Collegians, who play during the week, come the weekend and she is off to Palmerston North with the high school hockey club team. This has clocked up the kilometres, says Low.

“I played for Cental in my 20s, was a coach and ran hockey for 7-8 years as well as running kids’ programmes,” she said.

“Kids’ hockey is really strong in Whanganui, at its peak there were around 700 hockey players in Whanganui,” said Low.