S Africa look strong in Olympic hockey qualifier |
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29-Apr-2012
The Nation
KAKAMIGAHARA - South Africa beat the Czech Republic 6-2 on Saturday for their second straight win in the men's hockey Olympic qualifiers for this year's London Games.
Japan, seeking their first berth in the Olympics in 44 years, defeated Austria 4-1, while China's Liu Yixian scored a hat-trick to give his side a lopsided 8-0 victory over Brazil.
The day's action left South Africa, Japan and China sharing the lead after the second round of the tournament ahead of the next matches on Monday.
South Africa are rated top among the participants, with a 12th place in the world rankings.
The top two teams in the round robin will face each other in the final, vying for the last ticket to London.
The event is the last of three final Olympic qualifying tournaments that started in February to decide the last three berths and wrap up a long process to choose 12 teams for the London Games.
Meanwhile, forward Kaori Fujio scored a hat-trick to lead Japan to an 8-0 thrashing of Malaysia on Friday in the women's hockey final qualifying tournament for the London Olympics. The Japanese women, who whitewashed Austria 7-0 in the opener on Wednesday, started a six-goal onslaught in the second half for their second straight win in the six-team round robin competition.
Azerbaijan defeated Belarus 3-0 earlier in the day also for their second straight win, but remained in second place behind Japan with a goal differential of 7-0 against Japan's 15-0.
In the last game of the day, Denise Infante scored twice in the second half to help Chile beat Austria 3-0 for their first win.
Chile and Belarus have 1-1 win-loss records, ahead of Austria and Malaysia 0-2.
In the men's game between China and Austria, which was postponed due to rain, China kept their overnight lead at half time to win 1-0. The top two teams in the round robin will face each other in the final, vying for the last ticket to London.
The 11 men's teams to have already qualified for the Games are: Australia, Great Britain, Spain, Pakistan, Argentina, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, New Zealand, India and Belgium.
Results:
Men's round robin:
South Africa 6 Czech Republic 2
China 8 Brazil 0
Japan 4 Austria 1
The top two teams will enter the final. The winners qualify for the London Olympics.
Source: http://www.nation.com.pk/
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