JUMPING FOR JOY
COACH Danny Kerry had a feeling it would be Great Britain’s day - and so it proved as Maddie Hinch’s heroics and Hollie Webb’s penalty shootout strike earned Olympic hockey gold.
Holland were bidding for a third straight Olympic title, but their faces fell as the final ended 3-3, with Britain twice coming from behind. And Britain were ready.
Kerry said: “We know we’re good at shootouts. We have some tough characters taking them and we have probably the best goalkeeper in the world.
“Even though we didn’t play very well in the first three quarters. I thought ‘yes, we’re making hard work of it, but we’re toughing it out’.
“Some days you know you’re going to win.”
Lily Owsley and Crista Cullen were on target in normal time, while Kitty van Male scored twice and Maartje Paumen once for world champions Holland, before Nicola White’s lastquarter strike levelled the match and the game went to penalties.
Holland had numerous chances and were continually repelled by Hinch, who delivered again in the shootout.
The 27-year-old from West Sussex said: “I just stayed in the moment. I never thought we were going to win or they were going to win.
“When I saw we were going to get a corner, I had a good feeling. When they hit the crossbar, I had a good feeling, when they missed the (penalty) stroke, I had a good feeling.
“Sometimes in sport it has to go your way. We’ve had a bit of luck this tournament, we’ve also generated our own luck and played well.”
Helen Richardson-Walsh converted a penalty flick after Georgie Twigg was fouled and Webb kept her cool to net the decisive effort after Hinch had time and again denied the Dutch.
Webb, who was a spectator when
SPRINT canoeist Liam Heath powered his way to Olympic gold in the K1 200 metres in Rio.
The 32-year-old made it third time lucky after winning silver alongside Jon Schofield in the K2 200m, to go with his bronze in Britain won London 2012 bronze, imagined she was in a little corner of Berkshire when she stepped up.
She said: “I just tried to block everything out and just think, this is just at Bisham (Abbey), I’m just practising.
“I’d done my homework, I knew going up what I was going to do. I didn’t actually feel nervous.”
Kate Richardson-Walsh, the team’s captain and wife of Helen, said: “I was so confident. I honestly felt that the more the crowd booed, the more that Helen was going to score. the same class from London 2012, as he swept past France’s Maxime Beaumont in the closing stages to take victory at the picturesque Lagoa.
Heath said: “I’ve got the set now, bronze in London, silver and gold here, it’s incredible.”
“To win an Olympic medal is special, to win an Olympic medal with your wife standing next to you, taking the penalty in the pressure moments is so special. We will cherish this for the rest of our lives.”
Helen Richardson-Walsh, who had missed her shootout attempt moments before, said: “As soon as it was a stroke I was really confident I’d go up and slot it home.
“It was a really strange feeling. I felt like I was back at Bisham at our training base.
“The more the boos came the more I felt ‘bring it on’. I didn’t get a clean connection.
“It kind of dribbled into the corner, but it went in, so I don’t care.”
The match had echoes of last year’s European Championship final, when England came from 2-0 down at the end of the third quarter to draw 2-2 and win on penalties against the same opponents.
Kate Richardson-Walsh was involved in that game but she revealed the Olympic final will be her last international appearance.
It is likely to be Helen RichardsonWalsh’s last, too, after also playing in four Olympics. The pair will move to Holland to play for Bloemendaal next season.
“I hope they’re going to be kind to us,” Kate said.
“Internationally this is my last thing. I’m going to retire as Olympic champion, which is a good way to go out.”