The Hindu : Sport / Olympic Games : Australia downs Japan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004

Sport

Sport - Olympic Games

Australia downs Japan

By Kamesh Srinivasan

ATHENS, AUG. 24. The champion of the last two editions, the Australian women's hockey team recovered from its disappointment of not making the semifinals, and beat Japan 3-1 in a classification for the fifth to seventh places.

Japan shot ahead in the 15th minute through Tomomi Komori, but Australia responded with two goals in the first half itself. Peta Gallagher put the Aussies on par in the 27th minute and Suzie Faulkner put the team ahead with two minutes left for halftime.

Two minutes on resumption, skipper Katrina Powell converted a penalty corner to put it beyond the Japanese team.

"It is difficult when you have a team with great expectations. We had a lot of pressure from Japan. We are looking forward to playing against New Zealand. We just want to score goals'', said David Bell, the coach of the Australian team.

In the other classification match, New Zealand scored a golden goal through Lisa Walton to beat Korea 3-2.

Niniwa Roberts-Lan and captain Suzie Muirhead had put the Kiwis ahead 2-0 by the eighth minute, but the Koreans fought back with two goals in the space of three minutes midway through the second half.

Kim Yun Mi and Park Mi Hyun scored those goals for the Korean team. Lisa Walton clinched the issue in the 10th minute of extra-time for New Zealand.

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