ATHENS, 26 August 2004 — The Netherlands will battle for a hat trick of Olympic men’s field hockey gold medals tomorrow against Australia, the best team never to have won the title.
The Dutch, who won golds at the 1996 Atlanta Games and in Sydney four years later, ousted world champions Germany 3-2 in yesterday’s first semifinal.
Australia dumped Spain 6-3 in the other semifinal with Michael McCann scoring two goals in his 100th international match and Grant Schubert chipping in with another two.
The Netherlands, who have won nine of the last 12 major titles in the sport, scored twice in a four-minute burst in the second half to break the 1-1 deadlock at the interval.
It made amends for the third-place finish at the 2002 World Cup in Malaysia which Germany won by defeating Australia in the final.
Australia, who have lifted the World Cup and Champions Trophy in the past, have never won an Olympic gold despite making it to the semi-finals and beyond eight times since 1964.
It is Australia’s fourth Olympic final, the first since Barcelona in 1992, and it came after cornering the dangerous Spaniards with a fast, aggressive game.
Pakistan defeated arch rivals India 3-0 to ensure they stand among the top six in the Olympic men’s field hockey competition.
Tariq Aziz, Sohail Abbas and Shabbir Mohammad scored for Pakistan in the second-half after a goalless opening session on pitch two of the Helliniko stadium.
Pakistan, fourth at the Sydney Games four years ago, will battle with New Zealand tomorrow for fifth place.
New Zealand came from behind to defeat South Korea 4-3 earlier yesterday.
Australians in Monster
Medals Haul
• Australians won the men’s keirin and madison events at the Olympic Velodrome yesterday to seal their track cycling team’s best ever showing in the history of the Games — nine medals including five golds. Stuart O’Grady and Graeme Brown combined to claim the madison race before Ryan Bayley won the keirin.
The Australians have also won the men’s sprint, the men’s team pursuit and the women’s 500-meter time trial over the past six days as well as taking two silvers and two bronzes.
Add to that the gold won by Sara Carrigan in the women’s road race on the opening weekend of the Games and the Aussies, dogged by doping allegations and in-fighting all year, have had a phenomenal Olympics. “It keeps just getting better and better,” said O’Grady, whose gold was his first from four appearances at the Olympics.
“The whole year has been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster. But I trained hard and it paid off.” Australia’s monster haul means they leapfrog the United States and Italy to become the third most successful nation in the history of Olympic track cycling with 38 medals. Only Britain and France have won more.
In the only woman’s final of the day, Russia’s Olga Slyusareva, the most successful female exponent of the points race, finally won an Olympic gold. The 35-year-old had won the last four world championship points races but had never translated that success to the Games. Her best previous effort was a bronze in Sydney.
