Craig Fulton (born 6 November 1974) is a former South Africa men's field hockey international and a former coach of the

Ireland men's national field hockey team The Ireland men's national field hockey team is organised by Hockey Ireland and represents both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in international men's field hockey competitions, including the Summer Olympics, the Men's Hockey World ...

. As a player he represented South Africa at the

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

and

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

and at the

2002 Men's Hockey World Cup The 2002 Men's Hockey World Cup was the 10th edition of the Hockey World Cup, a men's field hockey tournament. It was held from 24 February to 9 March 2002 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Germany won their first title after defeating Australia 2–1 ...

. His brother,

Grant Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom *Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama *Grant, Inyo County, C ...

, and his wife,

Natalie Natalie may refer to: People * Natalie (given name) * Natalie (singer) (born 1979), Mexican-American R&B singer/songwriter * Shahan Natalie (1884–1983), Armenian writer and principal organizer of Operation Nemesis Music Albums * ''Natal ...

, were also South Africa field hockey internationals. In

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Fulton and his wife became the first married couple to represent

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

at the same Olympic Games. As a player/coach with Pembroke Wanderers he won two Irish Senior Cups, two

Men's Irish Hockey League The Men's Irish Hockey League is a field hockey league organised by Hockey Ireland that features men's teams from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The league was first played for during the 2008–09 season. It replaced the All-I ...

titles and the

EuroHockey Club Trophy The EuroHockey Club Trophy I is an annual men's field hockey competition organised by the EHF for European hockey clubs. It is the second most prestigious European club competition, being one tier below the top men's European club competition the ...

. As a coach Fulton guided Ireland to third place at the 2015 Men's EuroHockey Nations Championship and to qualification for both the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

and the

2018 Men's Hockey World Cup The 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup was the 14th edition of the Hockey World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national field hockey teams organized by the International Hockey Federation, FIH. It was held from 28 November to 16 Decem ...

. While coaching Ireland, Fulton was named the 2015 FIH Men's Coach of the Year. He was assistant coach of the

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

team that won the 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup.

Early years and education

Fulton was educated at

Pretoria Boys High School , motto_translation = "Through courage and labour" , location = , streetaddress = 251 Roper Street, Brooklyn, Pretoria, Brooklyn , region = , city = Pretoria , provi ...

and

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

Domestic teams

Chelmsford

Between 1999 and 2005 Fulton served as player/coach of

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...

in the

Men's England Hockey League The Men's England Hockey League is a field hockey league organized by England Hockey that features men's teams from England and Wales. Format Regular season There are 62 teams in the league, the top tier consists of a Premier Division of twelve t ...

. In September 2002, while in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

, Fulton was hospitalised after he and his then girlfriend and later wife

, interrupted a suspected burglar at his home. Fulton was reportedly stabbed or slashed seven times during the incident. In 2004 he guided Chelmsford to promotion to the Premier Division. During this time Fulton also coached field hockey at

Felsted School (Keep your Faith) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Chris Townsend , r_head_l ...

Pembroke Wanderers

In 2005 Fulton was appointed director of coaching and player/coach to the senior men's team at Pembroke Wanderers. With a team that included

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

and

Conor Harte Conor Harte (born 3 April 1988) is an Ireland men's field hockey international. He played for Ireland at both the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup. He was also a member of the Ireland team that won the bronze medal at ...

, Ronan Gormley, Stuart Loughrey, Justin Sheriff,

Alan Sothern Alan Sothern (born 28 July 1987) is an Irish field hockey player who plays as a forward for the Pembroke Wanderers. He competed for the Ireland men's national field hockey team at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Club career Alan Sothern won two Ir ...

and Ian Symons, Fulton subsequently guided Wanderers to five national titles in four seasons. These included the 2006 All-Ireland Men's Club Championship, two Irish Senior Cup wins in 2008 and 2009 and to two

titles in 2008–09 and 2009–10. They also won the 2009

South Africa international

Fulton represented

at the

and

and at the

. His brother,

, and his wife,

, were also South Africa field hockey internationals. The brothers were team mates at the 1996 Olympics. In

Fulton and his wife became the first married couple to represent

at the same Olympic Games.

Coach

South Africa

Between 2011 and 2014, after returning to

, Fulton held several coaching positions including serving as Assistant Coach of both the

women's A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

(2011) and men's (2013–2014) national teams. He also coached the Northern Blues at interprovincial level and served as technical director with the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...

while his wife,

, served as the club manager.

Ireland

Between 2006 and 2009, in addition to being player/coach at Pembroke Wanderers, Fulton also served as Assistant Coach of the

, first to Dave Passmore and then to Paul Revington. In 2014 he succeeded Andrew Meredith as the senior Ireland coach. Fulton subsequently guided Ireland to third place at the 2015 Men's EuroHockey Nations Championship, to World League Round 2 tournament wins in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

and

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

and to qualification for both the

and the

. While coaching Ireland, Fulton was also named the 2015 FIH Men's Coach of the Year. In May 2018 he resigned as Ireland coach after accepting an offer to become

's assistant coach.

Belgium

In May 2018 Fulton was appointed Assistant Coach of the

Belgium men's national field hockey team The Belgian national men's field hockey team represents Belgium in international men's field hockey and is controlled by the Royal Belgian Hockey Association, the governing body for field hockey in Belgium. Belgium won the Men's Hockey World C ...

. He was assistant coach when Belgium won the

and Field hockey at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Honours

Player

;

* Hockey Africa Cup of Nations **''Winners'': 1996, 2000: 2 *

Men's Hockey Champions Challenge The Men's Hockey Champions Challenge I was an international men's field hockey tournament, played every two years. It was introduced in 2001 by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) in order to broaden hockey's competitive base at world leve ...

**''Runners up'':

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

: 1

Player/coach

; Pembroke Wanderers *

**''Winners'': 2009: 1 *

**''Winners'': 2008–09, 2009–10: 2 * Irish Senior Cup **''Winners'': 2008, 2009: 2 *All-Ireland Men's Club Championship **''Winners'': 2006: 1

Coach

;

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

*Hamburg Masters **''Winners'': 2017 *

Men's FIH Hockey World League The Men's FIH Hockey World League was an international field hockey competition organised by the International Hockey Federation. The league also served as a qualifier for the 2014 and 2018 Men's Hockey World Cups and the 2016 Olympic Games. T ...

Round 2 **''Winners'': 2015 San Diego, 2017 Belfast *Men's Hockey Investec Cup **''Runners up'':

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

;Individual * FIH Men's Coach of the Year **''Winner'': 2015

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fulton, Craig 1974 births Living people South African male field hockey players South African field hockey coaches Olympic field hockey players of South Africa Field hockey players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 2004 Summer Olympics 2002 Men's Hockey World Cup players Field hockey players at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Field hockey players at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games competitors for South Africa Pembroke Wanderers Hockey Club players Men's Irish Hockey League players Men's England Hockey League players South African expatriate sportspeople in Ireland South African expatriate sportspeople in England Sportspeople from Pretoria Stellenbosch University alumni Expatriate field hockey players Ireland men's national field hockey team coaches