{"id":112068,"date":"2021-08-05T12:23:39","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T12:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=112068"},"modified":"2021-08-05T13:58:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T13:58:16","slug":"despair-for-aussies-as-belgium-snatches-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=112068","title":{"rendered":"Despair for Aussies as Belgium snatches gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia's<\/a> hopes of a gold medal in the men's hockey have been ended in a heartbreaking penalty shootout loss to Belgium at the Tokyo Olympics.<\/a><\/p>\n

After the scores were locked at 1-all at full-time, the Belgians prevailed 3-2 in the shootout.<\/p>\n

OLYMPICS BLOG: UPDATES, LATEST NEWS<\/strong><\/em><\/a> |<\/strong><\/em> TOKYO GAMES EVENT CENTRE: SCHEDULE, RESULTS, MEDAL TALLY<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

"Everyone's a bit disappointed, feel a bit numb in there," said the Kookaburras' Eddie Ockenden after the match.<\/p>\n

"We came here to win and we didn't quite get there, but we feel like we've played pretty well.<\/p>\n

"Shootouts are tough, it didn't go our way."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It's Belgium's first gold medal in men's hockey, after claiming the silver in Rio in 2016. For Australia, it's a sixth medal in seven Olympics, but only in Athens in 2004 have they won gold.<\/p>\n

The Kookaburras have now finished with the silver medal at four Olympic Games (1968, 1976, 1992 and 2021), no other nation has finished second more often.<\/p>\n

Like every athlete in Tokyo the Kookaburras have had to adapt to the circumstances presented by COVID-19, but Ockenden refused to blame the loss on the disruption.<\/p>\n

\"Australia<\/p>\n

"It was really difficult for us over the last 18 months, we've probably been in Perth together for 12 months just playing against each other," he said.<\/p>\n

"Once we knew we couldn't play many internationals we just used (it) in our favour, and we had a really great belief in what we were doing.<\/p>\n

"I wouldn't change our preparation. It's been a long, hard slog, we were happy with what we did."<\/p>\n

After a scoreless first half, Belgium took the lead early in the third quarter with a goal to Florent van Aubel, only for the Hockeyroos to level at 1-all in the fourth quarter via Tom Wickham.<\/p>\n

Neither side could break the deadlock in regulation time, sending the match to a shootout, where each player has eight seconds one-on-one with the opposition goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Australia was on the back foot immediately when Blake Govers' couldn't convert with the opening shot. But Kookaburras keeper Andrew Charter levelled things up when he denied Felix Denayer, leaving the shootout locked at 2-2 after three shots apiece.<\/p>\n

But that was to be high point for Australia. When Josh Simmons missed and Alexander Hendrickx made his attempt, Belgium had a 3-2 lead, leaving Jake Whetton in a must-make situation.<\/p>\n

He was denied the goal as Belgium started to celebrate what they thought was a gold medal, only for the video umpire to intervene.<\/p>\n

After an agonising wait, Whetton was given a re-try after it was ruled Belgium goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch had fouled Whetton.<\/p>\n

But to his despair, Whetton's second attempt went the same way as his first, no doubt ensuring plenty of sleepness nights for the 30-year-old as he ponders what might have been.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia's hopes of a gold medal in the men's hockey have been ended in a heartbreaking penalty shootout loss to Belgium at the Tokyo Olympics. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112068"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112068"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112070,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112068\/revisions\/112070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}