MADRID, 6 March 2004 — Former Olympic champions Great Britain hit form finally in the Olympic Hockey qualifiers with a timely 1-0 win over Japan here yesterday as the Pool A race for the semifinals took a new twist with Spain recovering to hold the Netherlands 2-2 and South Africa winning 6-0 against Poland.

Though Britain revived their hopes of playing in this summer’s Athens Olympics, and Spain sustained their strides, the day’s highlight was largely left to the final match of the day with Nicol smashing in four goals for South Africa against Poland. He was on target in the 5th, 13th, 34th and 69th. The two other strikes came from Denne (26th) and Basson (52nd).

Britain, who had lost to European minnows Poland and defending Olympic champions Holland, earned their first points in the contest largely due to a penalty-corner strike from Tom Bertram at the stroke of halftime.

The narrow win over Japan propelled Britain to the fourth place in Pool A behind Holland, Spain and Poland and will now have to beat the hosts and South Africa in their next two matches to improve their chances of finishing among the top seven teams in the tournament and qualify for the Olympics.

The loss almost ended Japan’s hopes of making the cut for Athens as they now just have one point from their three matches. They still have to play the mighty Dutch.

Britain struggled in the early stages of the match with their forwards failing to find their touch. But Bertram’s goal gave Britain a fillip and they produced a disciplined display in the second half, despite Japan playing in a more attacking mode.

Hosts Spain rallied to a 2-2 draw against Holland after conceding two early goals in the match. Defender Santiago Freixa scored both the goals for them. Defending Olympic champions Holland went 2-0 ahead by the 23rd minute of the game. Rob Reckers struck early for the Dutch with a seventh minute goal and striker Nick Meijer doubled the lead with a superb goal.

But Spain hung on grimly and finally were rewarded for their persistent attacks when Freixa flicked one in the final seconds of the first half. The hosts pressed hard for the second and Freixa struck again, this time off a field attempt.

All Eyes on Big Match Today

As the matches in the qualifiers entered the crucial phase all eyes today will be on the flavor of the day here — the big matchup of the Asian giants Pakistan and India — with the tie taking on an added edge with both needing to win to assure themselves a clear run to the semifinals in the event.

Though officials from both the teams expressed confidence ahead of the Pool B game that might in the end decide who tops the group, the pressure on both the sides was palpable ahead of the contest.

Pakistan come to this match with two convincing wins over Canada and Belgium under their belt and are well aware that a win against India will almost assure them a place in the tournament semifinals.

India too would have been sitting pretty but for their costly 1-1 draw against Belgium in the opener. Their shaky 5-3 win over Malaysia, in which they conceded 12 penalty corners, would not have done their confidence a world of good. But the Indians have shown that they are a team that can improvise in adversity.

Indian coach Rajinder Singh was upbeat about his team’s chances against Pakistan.

“It is going to be a tough match, but we are here to qualify for the Olympics and are ready to take on any opponent,” said the coach who is under fire after his team’s far from convincing showing in this 12-nation contest so far.

Pakistan’s Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans said he expects his players to stick to his game plan even though past experience shows that the strategy provided by their coaches is seldom adhered to by the players in their matches against India where emotions always run high.

“It is the first time that they are playing against India with me as their coach but I am aware that the players tend to get very emotional when they play against India. This (emotions) is not new to me as it is almost the same when Holland plays Germany. But so far they (Pakistani players) have been following what we asked them to do and I am hopeful that they won’t disappoint in tomorrow’s game,” said Oltmans.

Oltmans, who coached Holland to victories in the 1996 Olympics and the 1998 World Cup, said it would be an interesting match for him as a coach adding that he was waiting to see how his players perform in the tense clash. Pakistan have been very professional in their matches against Canada and Belgium, but Oltmans wants his boys to raise the level of their game a notch up.

Rajinder, meanwhile, will be hoping that his team has regained their confidence after a win against Malaysia, and will be surely looking into ways to plug the drain of penalty-corners. “We gave away 12 penalty corners against Malaysia but cannot afford to do that against Pakistan who are the best in penalty corner conversion,” he said,