Hockey: Valiant struggle in vain

By BRONWYN SELL

It was a pity there weren't two medals in it, because New Zealand's impassioned 4-3 loss against Australia at the weekend deserved one.

After being shut out of the final by a miserable loss to gold medal winners India on Friday, the Black Sticks came back fighting for the bronze in yesterday's playoff.

For 73 minutes the teams were equals. A charge by Australia was followed by a charge from New Zealand, then Australia, then New Zealand.

At halftime they were two goals apiece, with New Zealand's coming from Amanda Christie.

But it took only two minutes for the bronze to scoot away from New Zealand.

Just minutes into the second half Ngaire Smith potted an easy goal for Australia after the ball rebounded from goalkeeper Helen Clarke's pads.

Sixty seconds later New Zealand wasted a powerful cross into the circle from Rachel Sutherland. From the restart, Australia's Katrina Powell broke away, dribbled the ball into the circle, and had plenty of space to dodge Clarke.

New Zealand still looked strong, but their reply from Suzie Pearce came too late as the crowd counted down the last seconds.

"I guess it was a consolation," Pearce said afterwards. "4-3 sounds better than 4-2." She said the team had been disappointed to meet Australia in the bronze medal match and not the final.

India went on to beat England in a controversial final with a golden goal after the scores were level 2-2 at fulltime.

The England coach, Tricia Heberle, protested that the match-equalling goal, from a penalty corner, was scored after the umpire, New Zealand's Lyn Farrell, had blown the whistle to signal the end of the game.

Their appeal was rejected because the rules allow for penalty corners to be completed even if the whistle is blown or the hooter sounds.

* In the men's semifinal, New Zealand beat Pakistan for the first time.

With eyes sparkling, fullback Dion Gosling said on the eve of the final with Australia that the players had not expected to do so well and were rapt with their stunning victory.

At 7-1, including a four-goal strike by Phillip Burrows, it could hardly have been a more resounding win for the team who came a lowly ninth in the World Cup.

"You don't get too many scores like this," coach Kevin Towns said afterwards. "We've been threatening to do this for some time, but not necessarily with Pakistan."

He said new recruit Hayden Shaw's accuracy and power had made a big difference to the team, especially in penalty corner attacks.

Shaw was the leading goalscorer of the Games, with 12 goals from five matches before the final.

Australia beat South Africa 3-1 in the other semifinal.

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