China suffered a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Germany in the final of the Rabo Women's Champions Trophy is Amstelveen this afternoon after twice having been in the lead. Hong Xia Li scored in the 5th minute for China but the Germans were quick to respond with a goal by Fanny Rinne. The two teams went into the interval at one apiece, but the Chinese soon restored their lead when play resumed with a penalty corner strike by Yi Bo Ma. Seconds later Natasha Keller restored parity with a superb back-stick strike of a loose ball in the Chinese 'D'. With less than a minute left on the clock it looked as if we were heading from extra time. However, intense pressure on the Chinese goal and a series of penalty strokes brought its reward, with a super strike by Fanny Rinne.
In the 3rd/4th place play off the Dutch managed to recover some of their prestige when cool nerves saw them dominate a penalty-stroke shoot-out. Goals by Vera Vostenbosch for the Netherlands and Mercedes Margalot for Argentina had sent the two sides into extra time and then a penalty stroke competition. By the time the third set of strokes had been completed the Argentinians had only netted the ball once. Minke Booij took the four stroke for the Netherlands, found the net and that was enough to give the home side the bronze medals. Australia and New Zealand slugged it out for 50 minutes before the Hockeyroos managed to score. Final Score 2-1, leaving New Zealand in bottom place.
A report on the Champions' Trophy by Peter Colwill will appear in the August edition of HockeyTalk , available to download at www.talkhockeyradio.co.uk from next Thursday.
ENGLAND TAKE BRONZE IN DUBLIN
In the European Youth Nations Championships in Dublin, England's boys secured the bronze medal with a win over Ireland. Belgium and the Netherlands were due to play in the final, but we do not yet have a result for that match or any results from the girl's tournament in Valencia.
