Shane McLeod says he “couldn’t be happier” with how his Belgian men’s side has been playing so far in the Olympic Games after a 4-1 win over Great Britain, a 12-0 thumping of Brazil and a 1-0 win over Australia.
“Nine from nine [points] and within that nine you take the scalp of Australia and GB, it’s a really good start.”
The New Zealander came into the role late in the day, taking over from Jeroen Delmee after the European Championships in August 2015 but it looks like he has made a big impact.
Speaking about the job, he said: “For me, it was a case of coming in and just trying to get them reaching their potential and at the moment we are getting close. I think there is another couple of levels but they’re getting close.
“They’re aggressive. Apart from a few moments in this last game where Australia really tried to push them a long way, they respond well.
“The word we are using a lot is relentless and I think that’s a really powerful word in sport because it means you’re not going to stop, you just keep going, keep going, if you’re winning, if you’re losing and they love it.
“They love that word [relentless]. They had to teach them that because it’s not really in the French or Flemish translations directly so they tried to find the word for me but they couldn’t quite do it.”