WELLINGTON, Feb 10: Bradley Shaw converted a penalty corner in the last minute of extra time to give New Zealand a 3-2 victory over Argentina and a place in the Beijing Olympic tournament on Sunday.

New Zealand had muffed the trap on the penalty corner but the ball rebounded to Shaw who swept it in to give the Black Sticks victory on the golden goal.

New Zealand twice had to battle back from a goal down in the final of the six-team tournament, forcing extra time when penalty corner specialist Hayden Shaw levelled the scores with five minutes remaining in normal time.

Argentina had started more aggressively and opened the scoring when Matias Vila played in a flat ball from a penalty corner which his brother Lucas deflected into the roof of the net in the 25th minute.

New Zealand’s Dave Kosoof equalised in the 49th minute, again off a penalty corner, when Hayden Shaw played a flat ball to the right post where Kosoof deflected it past Juan Vivaldi.

Matias Vila restored Argentina’s lead when he smashed home another penalty corner in the 55th minute to give seventh-ranked Argentina the sniff of Beijing. The Black Sticks, however, refused to lie down and Hayden Shaw sent the game into overtime before his brother sealed their qualification.

The event in Auckland was one of three pre-Olympic qualifying tournaments with each of the winners joining China, Netherlands, South Korea, Canada, South Africa, Spain, Belarus, Pakistan and Australia in the 12-team Olympic competition. The other two tournaments are in Chile in March and in Japan in April.

The Beijing Olympics run from Aug 8-24.—Reuters