PARIS: China’s women’s hockey team upset Australia 3-2 at the Paris Olympics on Monday for their first semi-final berth in 16 years.

Australia entered the game as the top seeds and were expected to get the chance to reach the gold medal match for the first time since the 2000 Sydney Olympics. China’s last semi-final appearance came in 2008 in Beijing.

Scoring opened with forward Alice Arnott netting her fourth tournament goal off a penalty corner in the 10th minute, but China responded to take it level in the 11th minute with midfielder Ning Ma scoring from China’s first penalty corner.

Wen Dan gave China the lead in the 20th minute before forward Jiaqi Zhong added another goal off a penalty corner in the opening minutes of the third quarter. Australia fought back but could not overcome the two goal deficit, scoring only once more on a penalty corner.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2024