London 2012 Olympics: GB women earn royal approval as win over New Zealand seals historic bronze

GREAT BRITAIN won their first women’s Olympic field hockey medal in 20 years by beating New Zealand 3-1 in the bronze match at Riverside Arena yesterday.

The Duchess of Cambridge was on hand to applaud the goals, all of them from second-half penalty corners.

Alex Danson and Sarah Thomas deflected in hits by captain Kate Walsh, and Crista Cullen slammed in the second one. The bronze matched Britain’s only previous medal, earned at the 1992 Barcelona Games. The Duchess joined in a standing ovation for Britain’s players at the end of the match. New Zealand, who scored through Stacey Michelsen with two minutes to go, were already assured of their highest Olympic finish after making the semi-finals for the first time. Their fourth placing was two above their ranking.

After a quiet first half of few chances, New Zealand hit the post just 39 seconds into the new period.

Katie Glynn, her head still bandaged from the whack she received in the semi-finals, glanced at Cathryn Finlayson’s poke. Glynn thought she’d scored but the ball rolled slowly off the left post and England goalkeeper Elizabeth Storry batted it away.

That was to be the best chance until the end for the Kiwis, who lost the first penalty shootout in Olympic history to the Dutch in a dramatic semi-final.

From their third penalty corner of the game, Walsh hit left to Danson, whose deflection wrong-footed New Zealand. Britain lost any further team referrals five minutes later when they challenged a New Zealand corner that they successfully defended.

Britain bombed their fourth corner when they failed to set the ball, but five minutes later Cullen powered the next corner home, her fifth goal of the tournament and tied for the team lead with Danson. The result was certain, but Britain added a third when Walsh hit the other way – right – from the next corner and Thomas ricocheted it in at the open right post. New Zealand finished with their first corner success from three attempts, Michelsen glancing in the hit by Clarissa Eshuis.

Champions the Netherlands successfully defended their title with a 2-0 win that spoiled Argentina captain Luciana Aymar’s farewell to international hockey on her 35th birthday. Olympic gold is the only medal the South American playmaker and seven-time world player of the year has not won and she said victory in the final would give her “eternal glory”.

However, arguably the greatest player in the history of the women’s game bowed out having won two silvers and two bronzes in her four Olympic appearances. A cagey game was settled midway through the second half as the world No 1 Dutch scored two penalty corner goals in relatively quick succession from Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel and captain Maartje Paumen.

Even Aymar could not inspire world champions Argentina into a fightback as Netherlands collected the third Olympic gold medal in their history.