Sat, Aug 23, 2008 page19

• HOCKEY: Dutch beat Chinese for women’s hockey gold

  • AP AND AFP
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  The Netherlands defeated China 2-0 to win the Olympic gold medal in women’s field hockey yesterday.

  The Netherlands earned silver medals at the 2004 games in Athens, but hadn’t won gold since 1984.

  The silver is China’s first medal in women’s field hockey. The sixth-ranked Chinese held their own against the world’s top-ranked team, but lacked the skill to match the Dutch.

  Argentina defeated Germany 3-1 to win the bronze medal and repeat its 2004 finish.

  The championship match was scoreless at halftime, and featured several spectacular saves by Chinese goalkeeper Pan Fengzhen.

  The Netherlands finally scored in the 51st minute on a penalty corner. Naomi van As knocked in a rebound off Pan’s stick to give her team a 1-0 lead.

  China failed to convert on a penalty corner less than two minutes later.

  Netherlands scored the clincher when Lidewij Welten knocked in an errant clearance attempt by China’s Li Shuang in the 62nd minute.

  The Germans won gold in 2004, but struggled defensively in the medal round.

  Rosario Luchetti scored the first goal for Argentina in the 11th minute on a deflected shot that went through several German defenders.

  Argentina’s Carla Rebecchi stopped a pass from going over the end line, rolled the ball back and scored in the 22nd minute to make it 2-0.

  Anke Kuehn’s goal in the 45th minute cut Argentina’s lead to 2-1, but Argentina’s Noel Barrionuevo scored the clincher off a penalty corner in the 63rd minute.

  South Africa defeated New Zealand 4-1 for 11th place, and Australia defeated Britain 2-0 for fifth.

  Meanwhile, former Pakistani Olympians yesterday called for a major effort to revive Asian field hockey after one-time powerhouse Pakistan finished a poor eighth in Beijing and India failed to even qualify.

  The three-time champions lost to New Zealand 4-2 on Thursday for their worst performance in Olympic history, while Asian champions South Korea play Britain today for a possible fifth spot.

  Eight-time Olympic champions India failed to qualify for the first time in 100 years of hockey in the Summer Games.

  This also became the second Olympics in a row when none of the Asian teams qualified for the semi-finals with world champions Germany facing Spain in the final and Australia playing the Netherlands for a bronze medal today.

  Former Pakistan captain Shahbaz Ahmed lamented the downfall of Asian hockey.

  “Asian hockey is dead and buried,” Ahmed said. “We need to dig deep to revive Asian hockey and the need of the hour is to select players aged 15-18 years and give them coaching on modern lines.”

  Pakistan, who won the Olympic title in 1960, 1968 and 1984, won their last Olympic medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games when they took a bronze. They finished sixth in 1996, fourth in 2000 and fifth in 2004.

  Ahmed refused to support the idea of hiring a foreign coach to revive their fortunes.

  “India had Australian legend Ric Charlesworth as their adviser but they didn’t even qualify. I think a foreign coach is not an answer because he can take the players to a certain level and that is not enough,” the mercurial playmaker said.

  “Asian style is different but we need to adopt some modern technique and must have a young coach like Tahir Zaman, Qamar Ibrahim, Khawaja Junaid or Kamran Ashraf who know the basics of astro-turf,” said Ahmed, a member of Pakistan’s world title winning team in 1994.

  Ahmed said he had to admit Europeans have improved vastly.

  “The worst part is that we don’t accept our downfall and I remember that officials were saying that we will finish on the victory stand which was an illusion. We must admit we are at the lowest ebb of our hockey,” Ahmed said.

  Fellow former Olympian Sohail Abbas said Asian nations must join hands to counter the European “onslaught.”

  “Why don’t the Asian nations unite and counter the European onslaught?” Abbas asked.

  Abbas, who plays for Rotterdam in the Dutch League, said the Europeans were beatable.

  “Asian teams can beat Europeans because we have the skills but now after the Beijing Olympics we need to improve in all forms of the game,” he said.
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