Kookaburras to play for men’s hockey Olympic gold after seeing off Germany
Australia are through to the Olympic men’s hockey final for the first time in 17 years after a 3-1 defeat of Germany in their semi-final in Tokyo. The Kookaburras will battle Belgium for the gold medal in Tokyo on Thursday evening.
Tim Brand and Blake Govers were on target in a pulsating semi-final contest, scoring either side of German Lukas Windfeder’s equaliser.
Lachlan Sharp sewed up victory 90 seconds from time on a Kookaburras’ breakaway. It means Australia will contest a first Games final since 2004 in Athens, the only time they have won Olympic gold. The game began at a frantic pace and the Kookaburras struck after seven minutes when Govers chose to take the aerial route.
Flynn Oglivie brought the ball down brilliantly for Brand to poach his fifth goal of the competition from close range. Australia’s joy was cut short, though, as Germany responded within three minutes from a penalty corner.
Windfeder is one of the best in the business from such situations, and he beat Oglivie’s attempted goal-line clearance to level. Tom Wickham’s burst set up Oglivie for a shot which Germany goalkeeper Alexander Stadler pushed around a post.
Andrew Charter was also busy at the other end to twice deny Timm Herzbruch and keep out Windfeder. Australia regained the lead four minutes before the break when Govers drilled home a low penalty corner.
It was Govers’ 96th goal in 110 international appearances, and his seventh at the Tokyo Games. Govers was foiled from another penalty corner by a superb Stadler stop before Germany began to dominate.
Constantin Staib went close in the final quarter, but Australia defended for their lives and sealed victory with no goalkeeper in the Germany net.
Wickham charged through and crossed for Sharp to apply the finishing touch in front of an empty goal. India and Germany will play for the bronze on Thursday morning.
that the search for ever greater speeds has pushed the riders up to their limits and sometimes beyond, as was seen when the Danish lead rider, Frederik Madsen, shunted into Charlie Tanfield on the final lap of their second-round match, simply because Madsen was so intent on keeping to the black line at the foot of the track.
Similarly, when Katie Archibald ran into the rear wheel of Neah Evans after crossing the line in their team pursuit match against USA, that could be put down to exhaustion from driving the team to a world record to put them in the final. The record progression in the women’s 4,000m team pursuit is as remarkable as that in the men’s, perhaps more so given that the discipline only moved to four women and 4,000m after the London Games.
“I’ll just keep turning up and see what happens,” said Laura Kenny and while she is back on Friday for the Madison, along with Archibald, Jason returns for the start of Wednesday’s session with qualifying for the match sprint. On the other hand, there is no way back for the team pursuit stalwart Ed Clancy, whose 16 years racing with the Lottery-funded squad ended on Tuesday when he was ruled out of the second round due to a resurgence of the back injury that has plagued him since a bizarre accident with a suitcase in 2014.
Part of the first generation to go through the British Cycling academy founded by Rod Ellingworth in 2003-04, the 36-year-old closed his career with the fastest ride by a British quartet in qualifying on Monday. Although the team-pursuit game has moved on dramatically in the past few years, and Clancy and company are no longer the squad’s medal bankers, he can look back at three Olympic gold medals, five world titles at team pursuit and one in the omnium in 2010, and a string of world records over eight years and three Olympic cycles.
“I’d have rather gone round there tomorrow in 3min 38, high-fiving the crowd with my fourth gold medal in hand on the podium, but I’m glad I’ve got this far,” he said. “I’m glad I’ve gone down kicking and screaming and fighting.
“Managing the injury has been the issue for the last seven years; everything was going well [but] I was 5% off it yesterday and that’s enough to cost you in the last kilo.”
Clancy made his international debut at the 2005 world championships in Los Angeles, where he was part of a gold medal-winning pursuit team alongside the generation that had emerged at the Sydney Games. Through the Beijing Olympic cycle he developed into the prototype of the “mixed” athlete, part sprint, part endurance, who made the team pursuit faster and faster in recent years.
As well as watching Tour de France winners check in and out of the squad, Clancy has witnessed an astonishing increase in speeds. At the start of his career, teams rarely broke the fourminute barrier, whereas now the target is 3min 40sec. He is the most selfdeprecating of athletes, but to get as far as he has, gammy back and all, reflects massive fighting spirit. In the intensity of 21st century competition, few cycling careers at Olympic level will last as long.