The Netherlands completed a remarkable double in Olympic hockey on Friday when their women’s team, the defending champions, beat China 3-1 in a shootout to take gold just 24 hours after the men’s side had triumphed over Germany.
The Dutch women, who were appearing in their sixth successive final, were made to work hard for their fifth Olympic gold medal after the Chinese held them to a 1-1 draw in regulation time.
Chen Yi put the Chinese ahead after just six minutes and in spite of intense Dutch pressure throughout they appeared to be heading for their first Olympic gold.
Nine minutes from time, however, ace penalty corner shooter Yibbi Jansen rifled in her ninth goal of the tournament to level the scores.
Dutch goalie Anne Veenendaal saved the first two Chinese efforts in the shoot-out and when she kept out Ma Ning’s attempt as well the celebrations began for the army of Dutch supporters at the Yves du Manoir Stadium in Colombes.
“It was fantastic,” said Dutch coach Paul van Ass.
“The Chinese did very well, it helped them scoring a nice goal quickly.
“It was hard to break down their defence. We attacked well, the only thing didn’t work was gaining penalty corners.”
It is the first time ever that a nation has doubled up at the Olympic hockey – the men’s team also needing a shootout to get past Germany.
It marked China’s second silver medal, following their success at home in Beijing in 2008.
“Six months ago, a year ago, two years ago, we wouldn’t have thought we’d be here. This is just amazing,” said their Australian coach Alyson Annan who led the Dutch to Olympic success in Tokyo before leaving in controversial circumstances in 2022.
“I thought we were capable of this. I thought that we could win. They got the corner. Sometimes the luck falls your way.
“We did everything we could. They were just better in the shootout today.”
The Dutch went into the game with the wind in their sails having won all of their pool matches, including a 3-0 victory over the Chinese, before seeing off Great Britain in the quarter-finals and Argentina in the semis.
The defending champions looked odds-on favourites to take that form all the way to the podium.
But it was the Chinese who opened the scoring in the seventh minute with their only significant attack of the first half, Chen poking the ball beyond Veenendaal to silence the crowd which, as has become usual with Netherlands games, was predominantly clad in orange.
Dutch frustration
The Asian champions have blossomed under Annan’s guidance but they only had three shots on goal during the entire match, defending bravely as the Dutch came at them.
The equaliser finally came nine minutes from time when Jansen powered home a penalty corner, her ninth goal of the tournament.
The Dutch continued to press but had to be satisfied with victory in the shootout.
It was heartache for the Chinese to get so close to their first hockey gold but Annan, who is in negotiation with the Chinese over a contract extension, remained optimistic when looking for the next milestone.
“Gold in LA,” she told reporters. “We can only look up. We’ve done extremely well, we have to look up and above. We have to keep pursuing a higher place on the podium.”
Earlier on Friday, Argentina claimed their third Olympics bronze medal, their sixth medal in women’s hockey, also with a 3-1 shootout win over Belgium after their third-place play-off ended in a 2-2 draw.
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