Reuters
Rio de Janeiro, August 20: Great Britain eves beat defending champions the Netherlands here Friday to take home their first Olympic gold medal in women’s hockey, winning 2-0 in a tense shootout following a hard-fought 3-3 draw in regulation time.
“We’ve done it,” British midfielder Nicola White told reporters, brandishing her medal with a grin plastered across her face. “We’ve trained our arses off for so long, this is what we’ve dreamed of and now we’ve got it. We’ve now gone unbeaten through an Olympic tournament, which is unreal. We are just over the moon.”
That the near sell-out crowd at the Olympic Hockey Centre, a venue which has struggled to fill seats during the Rio Games, were in for a show was clear from the pushback.
Britain’s Lily Owsley claimed the first score of the night, emerging victorious from a mad scramble in front of the Dutch goal to put her side 1-0 ahead. A Dutch equaliser came courtesy of forward Kitty van Male who broke away for a one-on-one with the British keeper, drawing her aside and putting the ball into the top of the net with an audacious reverse stick sweep.
The Netherlands’ then went up with Paumen scoring off a penalty corner. But seconds later, Great Britain were on level terms when Crista Cullen picked up a cross in the opposition circle hit the target.
The goals kept coming in the second half. Both teams netted one each after a series of penalty corners, leaving the score deadlocked at 3-3 on the final whistle and forcing a shootout to decide the match.
Of the 10 goals available, only two were scored. Britain’s Helen Richardson-Walsh and Hollie Webb found the back of net to secure victory and their team’s first Olympic gold medals.
