The Rio Olympics 2016 have kicked off in the Brazilian city and on the very first day, we’ve had as many as eight matches of the hockey tournament. Six of them have been in the men’s category whereas the other two were played out between four of India’s groupmates in the women’s event.
Let us now take a look at all the hockey results from Day 1:
In Men’s hockey, it all started with the 5th ranked Indian team edging 3-2 past Ireland in what should have been a much easier contest for the Men in Blue. Drag-flickers Raghunath and Rupinder Pal Singh with three penalty corner goals ensured all three points for India after the Irishmen refused to give up till the final hooter was blown.
Second seeds Netherlands were held to a 3-3 draw by Argentina who recovered well from a two-goal deficit to get back even in the final quarter, courtesy Matias Paredes’ late equaliser after Lucas Vila’s brace had given them some hope of a turnaround.
The mighty Germans were on song en route to their 6-2 drubbing of Canada, with Furste, Trompertz, Muller, Butt and Wesley getting their names onto the scoresheets. By virtue of their huge goal difference, they climbed to the top of the table despite having equal points as India in Group B.
In Group A, Chris Ciriello and Matt Gohdes had given the world no. 1 Australian team a two-goal lead over their Oceanic counterparts New Zealand in the first half, but the Black Sticks tightened things commendably afterwards. Simon Child pulled one back in the beginning of the second half to make it 2-1 but couldn’t fetch a crucial equaliser that could salvage a point from the encounter.
In the following matches, the Aussies’ group rivals Belgium and Spain won big over their opponents which pushed them to 3rd in standings. Belgium upset Great Britain 4-1 while hosts Brazil were in for a humiliating 7-0 result against the Spaniards that saw the latter sit comfortably at the top of Group A.
In the women’s tournament, only two matches were contested, both of which saw 2-1 victories for the marginally superior sides. Both matches were shock defeats for the higher-ranked sides in Group B – Argentina and Australia going down to USA and Great Britain respectively.
Later tonight, Indian Eves start their Olympic campaign against Japan in Group B at 7:30pm IST.
