Hockey, South Africa

An early penalty corner goal from Christopher Zeller was enough to take the German men to a 1-0 win over Spain and put the Gold around their necks in the final match of the Olympic hockey tournament in Beijing.

Australia took the Bronze medal with a stunning 6:2 win over The Netherlands. Eddie OCKENDEN was the star of the show, scoring two and setting up another as The Kookaburras cruised to victory.

Classification 11th-12th
South Africa defeat New Zealand 4:1 (2:1)

South Africa deservingly won the classification game for 11th-12th place with a convincing 4-1 win over New Zealand. They started the match with more purpose and, after Kate HECTOR found the crossbar on their first penalty-corner, opened the scoring in the 14th minute by Marsha MARESCIA, picking up the rebound on another Kate HECTOR’s flick.

Germany and Spain will meet in the men’s final of the 2008 Olympic hockey tournament following two marvellous semi-finals this evening.

In the first semi-final, World Champions Germany defeated The Netherlands on penalty strokes, with tournament top scorer Taeke TAEKEMA missing the vital effort.

The match was full of tension, drama and hockey of the highest quality. The Netherlands looked as though they had won it when Timme HOYNG gave his side a 1:0 lead four minutes from time, but Germany were level two minutes later defender Philipp ZELLER grabbed an equaliser.

Extra time finished goal-less, and TAEKEMA’s sudden death penalty miss proved decisive.

The women's classification stage started today with the matches for 9th and 7th places between Korea and Japan and Spain and the USA respectively. Korea defeated Japan narrowly to take ninth place, while Spain had to take the USA to extra time to defeat them on golden goal and claim seventh place.

In the first semi-final, China delighted the home crowd with a convincing semi-final win against Olympic Champions Germany, reaching the Olympic Final for the first time.

RSA vs Canada

We didn’t come here to merely compete, we had team and individual goals that we wanted to achieve. We have made a lot of sacrifices over the last 2 years so it is an understatement to say that there is a very somber mood in our camp right now.

Our result against Canada has disappointed us and I’m sure our supporters are disappointed to. It is definitely not due to lack of effort, but rather our lack of execution on the field that has lead to our poor results.

Canada defeat South Africa 5:3 (2:2)

Canada and South Africa played out an intense battle that saw eight goals, five yellow cards and one red, with Canada running out 5:3 winners. A goal from Rob SHORT and two each for Wayne FERNANDES and Connor GRIMES gave Canada victory, but the match may well be remembered for other reasons.

Korea defeat South Africa 5:2 (4:0)

After an early goal from Sung Hee Gim, making good use of a penalty corner with a deflection off an Eun Sil Kim shot, Korea had some trouble translating their superiority into goals until a scoring spree towards the end of the half saw them soar away to a 4:0 lead.

In the morning, Canada virtually ended Great Britain's hopes of reaching the semifinals by forcing a draw from them, while Korea defeated Belgium to stay in the contention for their spot in the top four.

In the afternoon, Pakistan defeated South Africa while China dealt a heavy blow to New Zealand's aspirations for their first top four finish in Olympic hockey since 1976 by wrestling a draw from them.

First up on day four in the women's competition, the USA kept alive their hopes of reaching the semi finals of the Olympic hockey tournament with a comprehensive 4:1 victory over New Zealand, while in the subsequent game, the Dutch women made themselves the first Olympic semi-finalists in Beijing with a win over Australia.

Argentina celebrated a comprehensive victory over Germany to stay in the running for a semi-final spot as well, while the home team had no difficulty against Korea, dispatching their opponents 6-1 with hat-tricks from Tang Chunling and Fu Baorong.