Hockey: NZ edging closer to Games spot

New Zealand's chances of lining up in the Olympic tournament in Athens have just got better - and without picking up a stick in anger.

In the leadup to the final Olympic qualifying event in Madrid, Canada beat Greece 7-1 and 3-1 to win a best-of-three elimination series.

The effect is that Canada, who are in New Zealand's pool in the qualifying event, have lifted the number of Olympic spots available at the 12-team tournament from six to seven. The Greeks, as hosts, would have trimmed that to six if they had beaten Canada.

New Zealand, ranked 11th in the world, are pooled with three teams rated higher than them - Pakistan (fifth), India (sixth) and Malaysia (10th). The others are Belgium (14th) and Canada (15th).

New Zealand lost a shakedown game played over three periods, 2-1, to the host nation (North Harbour striker David Kosoof getting the goal) and will move their preparation up a notch with a full international tomorrow night against Spain.

Coach Kevin Towns has one injury concern - inside forward Mitesh Patel, who has a sore calf.

Towns' humour has been tested by unsatisfactory training conditions in the past couple of days. He said finding the turf unwatered for New Zealand's training and perfectly prepared for the Spanish "left us a little behind in our training and it's been a bit frustrating".

He will give members of his 18-man squad a chance to push for a place in the tournament opener against Malaysia on March 2 in the course of tomorrow night's game, and another against Japan next Thursday.