Favorites Australia thrashed South Africa 12-0 on Thursday to record the biggest win in World Cup history as former field hockey giants India and Pakistan took a tumble.
Australia’s penalty corner ace Luke Doerner slammed four goals, Jamie Dwyer three and Glenn Turner two as the Kookaburras surpassed Pakistan’s 12-3 romp over New Zealand in the 1982 edition in Mumbai.
European champions England continued their unbeaten run with a 5-2 demolition of Pakistan, with Jonty Clarke and captain Barry Middleton scoring two goals apiece.
PHOTO: EPA
England, who top group B with nine full points from three matches, need to win one of their two remaining games against India and Spain to qualify for their first World Cup semi-final since 1986.
Beijing Olympic silver-medalists Spain made light of the absence of injured strikers Santi Freixa and Eduard Tubau to silence a boisterous crowd of 19,000 with a 5-2 win over hosts India.
Pau Quemada converted two penalty corners, while Albert Sala, captain Pol Amat and David Alegre chipped in with goals in the key match.
India, who trailed 2-0 at half-time, earned consolation goals from Sandeep Singh and Gurwinder Chandi.
With two rounds of league matches still to be played, Australia and Spain were lying second in the group behind England with six points each.
India and Pakistan trail with three points apiece and need big wins in the remaining games to stay in contention for a place in the semi-finals.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later