After missing out on selection for the Beijing Olympics, Black Sticks right half Andy Hayward was determined to make it to London.

It fulfils a life-time ambition to compete at sport's pinnacle, but the focus was not always on hockey.

Tauranga Black Sticks player Andy Hayward (rear right) is aiming to win a medal at the London Olympics to show his future grandchildren. Photo supplied.

'When I was a little kid I wanted to be a 100m sprinter at the Olympics. Isn't that what everyone wants to be? But mid-way through high school I thought that maybe I could give it a good crack with hockey.”

Andy, 27, says his goal moved from the realm of dreams when he was made the national under-18 team as a Tauranga Boys' College seventh former.

'It was pretty hard to get there, but once you get to that level a lot of it comes down to hard work. If you can work hard and put in the hours of training then you can achieve those dreams.”

In keeping with this, he trains and plays 20-25 hours a week, fitting his commitments around work. Since April he has taken time off to train full-time with the squad, saying it has been great to have a complete team focus and given him time to do proper recovery work to look after his body.

Since making his international debut in 2007, Andy has collected 131 caps with the Black Sticks, but he says even with the best preparation he was not certain of being named in the team before it was announced in June.

'I thought I had done enough over the last little while. But you are always a bit nervous.”

Andy, who played his first hockey game aged six, believes the team has a good chance of achieving its medal goal.

'I think with the team we've got, if we do the best we can, it will be pretty hard to beat us, but we are up against some other pretty sharp teams.”

To have a chance at a medal the team needs to play well against Germany (ranked second) and Netherlands (third) - the two highest rated teams in its draw. Only the draw's top two teams advance to the semis.

'I definitely want to come back with a medal. It would be a disappointment to do any less.”

Andy, who is nicknamed Ginga and Grinch for his red hair, says with two weeks of hard training ahead in Belgium the fact the games are fast approaching is still to sink in.

'Also on our mind, we want to make sure that we come back from the games and feel we performed the best no matter where we come. That we did the best we could.”