PARIS: The Netherlands beat Germany in a shoot-out to win the men’s Olympic hockey gold on Thursday — the first leg of what they hope will be a Dutch double.

A tense game ended all square at 1-1, with fourth-quarter goals in quick succession from Dutch captain Thierry Brinkman and Germany’s Thies Prinz.

The match went to a shoot-out, with each player going one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

The first two efforts for each side were saved before Brinkman put the Dutch 1-0 up.

Pirmin Blaak then saved again from Prinz.

Thijs van Dam and Justus Weigard both netted, leaving Duco Telgenkamp with the chance to win the match.

The 22-year-old nonchalantly scooped the ball beyond Jean-Paul Danneberg to give the Dutch their first gold medal in the men’s competition since 2000.

The Netherlands face China in the women’s final on Friday.

Earlier, India beat Spain 2-1 to win bronze as skipper Harmanpreet Singh scored twice to put his side in front after they fell behind.

The win gave India’s their second consecutive bronze medal as part of a 13-medal haul for the once dominant side that won gold for six Games in a row from 1928 to 1956.

Spain opened the scoring in the 18th minute when skipper Marc Miralles put a penalty shot past Sreejesh after Manpreet Singh obstructed fellow midfielder Gerard Clapes in the circle.

Harmanpreet levelled with 15 seconds left of the first half on a penalty corner before netting the go-ahead goal on another in the 33rd minute, his 10th goal at the Games giving him a clear lead as tournament top scorer.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2024