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BEIJING - After enduring 70 minutes of intense Spanish inquisition, the Black Sticks cracked with four seconds to play in their men's hockey pool game in Beijing last night.
Had the game ended two seconds earlier, New Zealand would have drawn 0-0 with Spain to remain undefeated, tied for first in their pool. A spectacular Santiago Freixa goal on the hooter was pure torture.
It was that kind of day at the Games for New Zealand.
Moss Burmester led the men's 200m butterfly at world record pace, and didn't get a medal; rower Mahe Drysdale was a shadow of his true self, and nearly missed making the single sculls final.
Emma Twigg got nailed on the line in the single sculls, and missed the final by a fraction; the coxless four tried to nail France on the line, and missed grabbing them by a fraction.
In Qingdao, the 470 crew went too early at the start, and got disqualified, at the Water Cube the women's 4 x 200m relay team were disqualified when anchor swimmer Natasha Hind was ruled to have departed .01sec early.
That robbed lead-off swimmer Helen Norfolk of a national record in her last race for New Zealand, when she and medley specialist Dean Kent announced their retirements, after three Olympic Games apiece.
"It's an emotional moment because swimming has been my life," Norfolk said.
Kent signed off with an out-of-character 21st in the 200m individual medley heats.
Soccer's Oly-Whites also announced their Olympics departure, losing 0-1 to Belgium in Shanghai. Daniel Ellensohn left the tournament 46 minutes earlier, sent off moments after halftime for a crude challenge.
Hockey defeat still left New Zealand with a chance to be one of two teams to progress to the semifinals, though they slipped to fourth in the pool and face must-win matches against Belgium and China.
Three-time world champion Drysdale also lived to fight another day, even though it seemed the unthinkable was about to happen when he faded to third - and almost an eliminated fourth - in his semifinal at Shunyi.
Three of the five New Zealand crews in action qualified for the finals, but never showed enough to suggest they will win gold come finals day on Saturday.
Double scullers Nathan Cohen and Rob Waddell got through in third, while men's pair George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle were second.
At Qingdao, Olympic rookie Jo Aleh, 22, sailed her way into medal contention with a close second in the Laser Radial.
She bounced back from a horror 22nd in the opening race on Tuesday, with a second on Fushan Bay yesterday lifting her to seventh overall.
Fleet leader Andrew Murdoch had a bad day in the Laser Dinghy, finishing 40th of 43rd and slipping to 13th overall, while Carl Evans and Peter Burling in the 470s are 10th, and Finn sailor Dan Slater 12th.
Luuka Jones finished at the tail of the women's slalom kayak when she missed a gate on her first run, and copped a 50-point penalty.
Basketball's Tall Ferns plunged to their second loss in three games, 63-80 to China.
- NZPA
