Olympic-Hockey-India and Belgium join Australia and Germany in the semifinals

TOKYO, Aug 1 – India beat Great Britain 3-1 on Sunday for the first time since 1972 in the semifinals of the men’s hockey tournament at the Olympics and clashed with Belgium at the Tokyo Games.

Australia and Germany will play in the other semi-final.

India, who won their last eight Olympic hockey golds at the Moscow Games in 1980, took a 2-0 lead with goals from Dilpreet Singh and Gurjant Singh. After a goal in the 45th minute, India secured the victory when Hardik Singh scored 3-1.

“We are very happy because after a long time we have reached the semi-finals,” said Indian director Manpreet Singh.

“We have two more games, so … we need to keep our feet on the ground.”

Belgium ended Spain’s run 3-1 with two goals from top scorer Alexander Hendrix, who played with a band around his head to protect his next injury.

Australia advanced to the semifinals on Sunday, beating the Netherlands on penalties in the scorching heat of Tokyo, beating Germany and Argentina.

A powerful performance by goalkeeper Andrew Charter kept his clean sheet through penalties — helping Australia to a 3-0 win-win over the Cookpuras game after a 2-2 full-time score.

“It’s amazing,” the charter said. “Coming here and carrying the weight for a while is good for my confidence and good for the team advancing in defense.”

The Australians took the lead twice with a brace from Tom Wickham, only to see the Dutch level with goals from Ming van der Veerten and Geron Hertzberger.

As a result, the Dutch men’s team will lose the semifinals of the Olympic hockey tournament for the first time since 1984.

Germany started scoring against the Argentine Olympic champions in the 19th minute when defender Lucas Windfeder gave a low, hard corner to the left of the goal, leaving Argentine goalkeeper Juan Vivaldi with no chance to stop the ball.

The German team took the lead in the second half after scoring in another corner. In the fourth quarter there was a goal from both sides, including Windfeder’s second, and the final score was 3-1.

“It’s hot and Argentina is hot. We want to be calm, we want to play in our German style. I think we’re done it,” said Christopher Ruhr.

(This story sets the milestone for 1972, not 1980 in the first paragraph)

Report by Daniel Leucine; Lincoln Feast Montage, Sri Navratnam, Ana Nicolasi da Costa, Hugh Lawson and Prita Sarkar

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