By TERRY MADDAFORD
Victory in the Olympic qualifying tournament in England earlier this month has earned the New Zealand women's hockey team what appears a slightly easier task at Sydney 2000.
In yesterday's draw for the two Olympic pools, New Zealand have been grouped with the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa and China.
They
have avoided world No 1 Australia, Argentina, who beat New Zealand earlier in the year, South Korea, Britain and Spain.
The New Zealanders will play four pool games - that draw has yet to be made - with the top three progressing to the second phase, where they will play the three teams from the other pool.
With all points carried forward, the top two teams after the second phase will play for gold, the third and fourth-placed teams will chase bronze. There will be no semifinals.
"We have done okay," said New Zealand Hockey Federation chief executive Ramesh Patel yesterday. "Our coach, Jan Borren, is quite relaxed, although we were a little surprised we were ranked sixth behind South Korea rather than fifth.
"To get through you virtually have to play everyone so it is no big deal. The first priority is to ensure you finish in the top three in your pool as the bottom two teams will drop out."
The Netherlands (two) and Germany (three) are the highest-ranked teams in New Zealand's pool.
To make the top six, New Zealand would almost certainly need wins over South Africa (nine) and China (10) and hope to pick up points from teams ranked above them.
